Afrique en dérive - 2000

86 x 117 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Conflit des generations - 2005

132 x 238.5 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Cour des Grands - 2006

128 x 239.5 cm
Oil on canvas

Dans la grande forêt zaïroise - 1998

63 x 98 cm
Oil On Canvas

Désolation - 1999

77 x 111 cm
Oil On Canvas

L’esclavagisme - 2006

140 x 238 cm
Oil on canvas

L’espoir fait vivre - 2005

126 x 237.5 cm
Acrylic on canvas

La bombe anatomique - 2005

124 x 236 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Le Sud: poubelle du Nord ? - 2008

137.5 x 187 cm
Oil on canvas

Les défis de la mondialisation - 2005

131.5 x 238 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Les nouveaux maîtres du monde - 2008

129 x 209 cm
Oil on canvas

Les réfugiés de Kingasani - 1998

67 x 93 cm
Oil On Canvas

Moké : Le début de la fin - 2001

142 x 292 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Monde en effervessence - 2005

195 x 345.5 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Où va le monde? - 2006

149 x 370 cm
Acrylic and oil on canvas

Phénomène de la sape - 2005

129.5 x 239 cm
Oil on canvas

Pourquoi ça ne tourne pas rond dans l’atelier ? - 2000

132 x 170 cm
Acrylic on canvas

Prison des obligations - 2008

137 x 187 cm
Oil on canvas

Que nous réserve le 21ème siècle? - 2006

198 x 359 cm
Oil on canvas

Chéri Cherin

Joseph Kinkonda called, Chéri Chérin

Born 1955, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Lives and works in Kinshasa.

In the heart of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), five times larger than France, possesses incomparable natural human and cultural riches. More than 400 ethnic groups speaking as many languages have flooded into Kinshasa in one exodus after another. A megalopolis with more than 10 million inhabitants, Kinshasa exemplifies the famous article 15 of the Constitution which encourages people to take themselves in hand. Often this is done with talent, or even with genius. And this popular genius is what makes “Kin-the Beautiful” a stunning city, by day and by night.

Since the early 1970s, the city has witnessed a creative explosion in every artistic realm.

The group “Viva la Musica”, led by the superstar Papa Wemba, has enjoyed a huge popular success. It was a member of this group, Kester Emeneya, who invented the concept of the SAPE, the “Society of Atmosphere-Creators and Elegant Personalities”. In this Kinshasa institution, Chéri Chérin is one of the most prestigious figures.

Within this effervescent context, the 1978 exhibition Art Everywhere, brought attention to a whole group of young “people’s” artists, co-called because their representational, narrative painting is rooted in an addressed to the people at large. Samba, Moké, Bodo, and Chéri Chérin, the chief innovators of the group, have achieved success and have been embraced by all Kinshasa.

The artists in the “gang” – it is neither a school nor a movement – work in their separate studios on subjects inspired by social and political developments. They are differentiated as much by choice of subjects by style by the way they treat pictorial space, and by their use of colour. Chéri Chérin whose name is an acronym for “Créateur Hors (série) Expressionniste Remarquable INéganable unique en son genre” (« unclassifiable remarkable Expressionist creator unequalled and unique in this field »), gives equal prominence to subject, form, representation, intelligibility, and decorative qualities. In this way he draws the spectator into his own interrogations, imprecisions, uncertainties, and unfinished works. He denounces a world in which opportunism and comedy threaten to win out over the true values for which Chéri Chérin means to fight.

“And if you, in the West, say that painting is finished, I will not give in to the facility of video as it is seen everywhere today, even in the Dakar biennale. I will keep on painting and you will see what you will see.”

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019

Expressions d'Afrique Inside Jean Pigozzi's Collection

Galerie Gmurzynska - Zurich

23 Oct 2019 – 31 Jan 2020

Congo Stars, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany

2018

Congo Stars, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

2017

Kinshasa, par Chéri Chérin et Moke fils, French Institute, Beirut, Lebanon

2016

Essentiel Paysage, Al Maaden Art Gallery, Contemporary African Art Center, Marrakech, Morocco

Congo Art Works. Popular Painting, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium

2015

Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko, Fondation Cartier, Paris, France

2014

Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy: From the Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

2013

Peintres reporters de l’urbanité, à Kinshasa, Latitude 21, Dijon, France

2011

JAPANCONGO, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia

2011

JapanCongo, Magasin Grenoble, France

2011

Riad Al Maaden, Magnin-A, Marrakech, Morocco

2010

African Stories

Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech

2009/2010

Africa? Una nuova storia

Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy

2007/2008

Popular Painting from Kinshasa

Tate Modern, London

Why Africa?

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Turin - Italy

2006/2007

100% Africa

Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao - Spain

2005

15 ans de transition, Memling Hotel

Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo

2005

Peinture populaire congolaise, Museum of Haitien art

Port au Prince – Haïti

2004/2006

(travelling exhibition)

Africa Remix

Art contemporain d’un continent

24 July 2004 - 7 Nov 2004

Museum Kunst Palast

Düsseldorff - Germany

2005

Hayward Gallery,

London - England

2005

Centre Georges Pompidou,

Paris - France

2006

Mori Art Museum

Tokyo - Japan

2001

La Cité dans la peinture populaire, Wallonie Bruxelles Center of Kinshasa, Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo

2000

An/Sichten-Malerei aus dem Kongo 1990-2000

Museum für Völkerkunde

Wien - Austria

1999

Quatre peintres congolais, Cultural Center Gembloux

Brussel - Belgium

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2004

Mémoires de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi National Museum

Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo

2004

Gallery Art Körner

The Hague - Netherlands

2003

Dommenhoff

Neerpelt - Belgium

2003

Kin Moto Na Bruxelles, Hotel de Ville

Brussel - Belgium

2002

Marc Dengis Gallery

Brussel - Belgium

1993

Wallonie Bruxelles Center of Kinshasa

Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo

1991

French Cultural Center of Kinshasa

Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2019

Post War & Art Contemporain

Millon Trocadéro, Drouot catalogue pp80-81

2015

Beauté Congo 1926-2015 Congo Kitoko, Fondation Cartier, Exhibition catalogue

2007

Why Africa?

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.

2006

100% Africa

Exhibition catalogue. Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

Exhibition catalogue.

2005

15 ans de transition, Memling Hotel

Exhibition catalogue : Celestin Badibanga and Joseph Ibongo.

2004/2006

Africa Remix

Exhibition catalogue. published in German, English, French and Japanese. Published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

2003

Kin Moto Na Bruxelles

Exhibition catalogue : Celestin Badibanga and al.

2002

Marc Dengis Gallery

2001

La Cité dans la peinture populaire, Wallonie Bruxelles Center of Kinshasa,

Exhibition catalogue : Joseph Ibongo

2000

An/Sichten-Malerei aus dem Kongo 1990-2000

Museum für Völkerkunde

Exhibition catalogue : Bogumil Jewsiewicki and Barbara Plankensteiner.