Born in Burkina Faso, Hyacinthe
Ouattara is a contemporary artist best known for his paintings, drawings,
installations, and sculptures. Mostly self-taught, he attended several
workshops, practicing a live model drawing, after which he first imagined the
human body in a dreamlike and ghostly way. The visual impact of paintings
relies on the material, texture, and colors. Ouattara’s drawings, on the other
hand, are spontaneous, gestural, and question the human. His installations
often play with suspensions, questioning balance and imbalance. By focusing on
textiles, he can focus on the ambivalence between appearance and disappearance,
representation and intimacy, identity in the broadest sense. His sculptures in
twisted and knotted textiles take up this obsession with the organic and
question the notion of links. Hyacinthe Ouattara currently lives and works in
France.
Featured image: Hyacinthe Ouattara - Empreinte
2, 2020 (detail). Fabric scraps, knotting, threading and sewing. 19 7/10 × 18
1/10 × 12 3/5 in. 50 × 46 × 32 cm. This is a unique work. Photo courtesy 193
Gallery