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The Smell of Life

2020

Dated Titled

Size

138 x 138 cm
54 x 54.33 in

Year

2020

Medium

Paintings

Reference

8692a9cb

1973 Brazzaville, Congo

Growing up in Brazzaville, Gastineau Massamba was entrenched within the civil conflict that tore apart his country. Deeply affected by his experiences, he approaches his practice as a conduit for dealing with the violence, chaos, and pain he and his country suffered, of which vestiges from this tumultuous period still exist today. Massamba bears a violence within his methods: burns, cuts, and embroidered often appear with powerful effect. Laborious, yet refraining from ornamentation, his stark vignettes of human suffering are often attended by motifs of faceless armed soldiers and skeletal remains. The recurring motif of the skull suggests a will to tame the forces of evil, while gesturing toward traditional forms of Vodou, practiced in his home country. While seemingly macabre in tone, respite from violence is offered by way of transcendence, glimpsed in emblems such as organic plantation – as discernible symbols of growth and survival.

Massamba’s work has been widely exhibited in Republic of Congo, as well as further afield, with exhibitions in Brazil, France, Morocco, Senegal and Spain.


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Address

Paris, 18 rue du Moulin Joly

Since 1990, the Anne de Villepoix Gallery, is presenting many young talents, as well as more established artists, using photography, painting or mixed media from times and generations of artists with distinctive fields of interest. Artists such as Derrick ADAMS, Franck LUNDANGI or Iwajla KLINKE, are interested in the cultural differences existing between Wes...

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On Air

2019

300 x 200 x 3 cm

5100,00 €