Discover the lines and shapes of Cubist Carl-Edouard Keïta

Born in Abidjan in 1992, Carl-Edouard Keïta now lives and works in New York.

 

He graduated in 2021 from the New York Academy of Art. Carl-Edouard Keïta also won the prize for best draftsman for his graduation works, some of which are presented in this group show. It was while studying economics in Atlanta that Carl-Edouard Keïta discovered the history of African art, through a course offered at his university. As he describes it, this discovery was a veritable aesthetic revelation for him.

 

Fascinated since childhood by lines, straight or curved, he developed a passion for drawing, drawing inspiration from traditional, modern and contemporary references. From the angular forms of African statuary to the geometric decompositions of Cubism, via the vohou-vohou of Côte d’Ivoire, Carl-Edouard Keïta’s influences are numerous and create bridges between eras and continents. Initially self-taught, then an art student, Carl-Edouard Keïta perfected his pencil skills over the years, attached to the idea that pencil

drawing, behind its apparent simplicity, can become the site of a genuine quest for aesthetic sophistication and conceptual complexity.

 

 

For the artist, the sobriety of pencil is synonymous with freedom. Keïta’s drawings demonstrate a mastery of composition, with each work carrying a story, a narrative. The decomposition of the bodies of the figures depicted into several geometrically-shaped elements can also be understood as mimetic of a movement to unveil and deconstruct the subjects addressed in his works, from the visible to the hidden.