“Through history male artists have always objectified women. The work tries to subvert that, change that, challenge that. I am not necessarily looking at the men I draw as objects. The work is about taking away the process of objectification. Even though they are anonymous to me I eventually get to know them through the process of drawing, through scrutiny. It is important that the men are unknown to me and that they are anonymous.”
Yvette Greslé interviews Barbara Walker.
“His work is of significance to the history of art not simply within the context of the artist’s particular geographical and historical location. His work (and its history) opens up questions about experimental art practices; and the dialogues that take place between generations of artists (working across geography and historical time).”
Yvette Greslé on Issa Samb.
I always have human faces in my painting. People are what the world is made of. Personal memories (of course, nostalgia) are a very important aspect of my work. I always tell people that the best education I ever had was growing up in my grandfather’s compound. Every evening as kids we would gather around and listen to stories; someone always had a story to tell. And during festivals performers would come to tell stories.
Yvette Greslé interviews Victor Ehikhamenor.
The work of younger generations of artists such as Aboudia and Boua opens up interesting questions for art history, curating and criticism: focused on the idea of the contemporary and the African continent. I am concerned, not in refracting the work of these artists through a western art historical, curatorial and critical canon (broadly speaking). Rather I am interested in the practice of paying attention to the artist’s particular relationship to medium, process and place, and the conditions from which the work emerges (historical, social, economic, and political).
Yvette Greslé compares the work of two young African artists.
