Francis Mampuya
D.R. CONGO, B. 1967
After studying Fine Arts in Kinshasa for a year, Francis Mampuya chose to move on to avoid an academicism that asphyxiated him. With two friends he founded the "Libristes" group, favouring artistic freedom. Finally each member went their own way, but the seed had been sown. In 1997, he was awarded the Missio prize in Germany. Francis Mampuya's universe alternates between semi figurative and abstract art, the abstraction always being suggestive. Although the first impact is that of bright colours with a predominance of blue and red, his purpose is rather more sombre, showing a pain that is very near. Faces are rendered without mouths, because the voice of the people is silenced and inaudible, and silhouettes are vague and blurred because all is uncertain, all is in disorder. Colour is projected on canvas with fast and abrupt movements.
Francis Mampuya has his devotees. Of his work certainly, but of his personal qualities too: his simple and sincere attention, his discreet charm.
He exhibits his work mostly in Kinshasa where he received the first prize in an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the country's independence. Mampuya the rebel, the libriste, has gradually consolidated himself as a secure value of Congolese painting, as an established reference. In November 2016, he exhibited in the AKAA fair of contemporary african art in Paris.
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