Henri Abraham Univers
Ashanti Love, 2018
About
Henri Abraham Univers is a Franco-Burkinabe painter, born in Paris in 1974, of a French mother (Norman) and a Burkinabe father (Mossi). A self-taught painter, since early childhood he has been immersed in the artistic sphere: Through music, modeling and painting. Having grown up in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, from an early stage in his life he was surrounded by a multicultural environment that subsequently directly influenced his paintings. Although Africa is the main source of inspiration for his works, he finds his originality in everything and anyone, in different regions across the world (Europe, Asia or America.)
La Marche du Temps, 2017
Enfant de la Panthere, 2016
Le Pilier, 2018
Saint Gold, 2017
Henri Abraham Univers is an artist whose miscegenation is as much cultural as graphic. “I do not paint to decorate. I’m still trying to get a message across. I express a reality, and this is where I have more affinity with the warm and vibrant side of Africa.” Graduate from Le Conservatoire libre du cinéma français in Paris, he was ultimately taken over by his love for painting – A medium through which he quickly realized was easier for him to express himself with the use of canvas and a paintbrush – It was the most natural and instinctive way of being, much more so than while working in film. After a stint in New York, then Ouagadougou and Paris, he moved to London in 2010. He devoted himself to his passion full-time from 2012. In 2014, he had the privilege and honor of having been selected to exhibit at the prestigious Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 2015, he returned to France and moved to Bordeaux where he currently lives and works.(text RetroAfrica)