Famakan Magassa Mali, b. 1997
Overview
Écervelé, 2023
Magassa’s provocative social commentaries come to life through his distinct colour palette of blues and reds. His human caricatures depict cynical takes on the lengths that humans will go to get ahead in life. The painter, whose figurative works depict a comical look at the themes of gluttony and greed, is interested in how the value of money ends up supplanting that of people. Magassa has decided to take the audience on a journey through the contrasts and contradictions of the global economy.
With expressions across the spectrum of sarcasm and solace, Magassa’s distorted forms speak to the obsession that society has with consumption. The compositions of his works include personas who have been forced into marriage, forced into labour, and volunteered for debauchery, some of them losing one shoe along the way. Magassa uses acrylic on canvas to represent his creatures with extended spines and protruding bellies in the homogenous colour blue which is used for all the artist’s figures. The lips of his caricatures are exaggerated in a bright red, some of them with three teeth protruding in a smile or in a grimace.
Exhibitions
Biography
Famakan Magassa received his BFA in 2018 from Conservatoire Arts et Metiers Multimedia Balla Fasséke Kouyaté in Bamako, Mali. Magassa often refers to the humanoid subjects that occupy his canvasses as ‘kôredugaws’ – members of a secret, non-religious society in Mali that follow a code of conduct that emphasizes community, righteousness, and humility.
He exhibited for the first time in 2019 with several institutional shows, including presentations at L’Institute Français du Mali, Bamako; La Fondation La Maison de l’Artiste in Assinie, Côte d’Ivoire; and Les Magasins Généraux, BETC, Paris. In 2020, he was included in ‘L’exposition collective Jeunes Talents’ at the residence of the Ambassador to the European Union, Mali and was one of the 2020 Laureates of the Cité Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris, France. He has presented two solo exhibitions at albertz benda, at the gallery in New York in 2022 and in Los Angeles in 2023.
Magassa was awarded the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize in 2023 and presented his first solo institutional exhibition ‘Witness of My Time’ at the foundation in Cape Town in August 2023. His work has been featured by Artsy, Hyperallergic, Artnet, The Observer, L’Oeuil and Arts Magazine.