FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pascal Konan’s Solo Exhibition, Unfinished Symphony, at The Melrose Gallery 8 February – 9 March 2025
The Melrose Gallery proudly presents Unfinished Symphony, a solo exhibition by acclaimed Ivorian artist Pascal Konan, curated by Mpumi Mayisa. From 8 February to 9 March 2025, the exhibition affords a poignant meditation on resilience, transformation, and continuity by way of Konan’s masterful use of various supplies and fragmented figuration.
By way of Unfinished Symphony, Konan explores the intricate coexistence of custom and modernity, reflecting on the evolving narratives of African identification in an more and more urbanised and globalised world. Drawing from his lived experiences in Abidjan’s vibrant but precarious neighbourhoods, Konan employs a blended approach, drawing on denim, bleach, acrylic, and Chinese language ink as each materials and metaphor, providing a layered commentary on city African life.
Every materials and power he selects brings a novel dynamic to his compositions, reflecting his want to work with parts from his setting that talk to him and provoke reflection. The interaction of denim and bleach creates a nuanced spectrum of tones, from mild to darkish. On the identical time, acrylic and Chinese language ink form fragmented human types, evoking the complexities of up to date African cities and addressing themes of transformation and resilience.
Konan’s layered compositions current dancing, fragmented our bodies borrowed from up to date dance and Renaissance iconography – set in opposition to tactile, textured backdrops. This interaction of motion and stillness captures the rhythmic choreography of life, the place the sacred and the profane coexist. The exhibition emphasises the sacredness of humanity, as Konan’s work resonates with religious undertones knowledgeable by his Christian religion and musical sensibilities. The artist’s skill to articulate common truths by way of African cosmologies ensures that his work stays deeply rooted but globally accessible.
Mpumi Mayisa’s curatorial strategy displays on the profound existential questions impressed by Konan’s meditations on these posed by Gauguin and life itself: The place can we come from? What are we? The place are we going? These inquiries are visually and conceptually grounded within the artist’s perception in human life’s everlasting significance and collective care’s transformative potential.
“Pascal Konan’s work reveals the poetry of existence in all its precarities and potentials,” notes curator Mpumi Mayisa. “Konan’s observe displays a profound understanding of materiality, the place every factor contributes to the dynamic power of his compositions. His layered depictions of dancing figures invite us to mirror on the interconnectedness of humanity and the enduring capability for renewal and hope.”
As an artist whose observe transcends geographic boundaries, Konan insists on creating universally resonant works. His deliberate use of symbolic codes and accessible visible languages bridges the specificity of African urbanity with world audiences, providing each a critique of up to date social situations and an invite to think about a extra harmonious future.
Be a part of us at The Melrose Gallery in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, for the opening of this solo exhibition on Saturday 8 February 2025 at 11am.
About Pascal Konan
Pascal Konan was born in 1979 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and graduated from the Nationwide College of High-quality Arts in Abidjan, the place he now teaches portray whereas actively practising his artwork. Rooted within the every day lifetime of Abidjan’s inhabitants, Konan’s work exalts the vibrancy of African cities whereas bearing witness to their precarities. Drawing inspiration from his childhood within the suburbs of Abidjan, Konan seeks to know the human soul by way of the rhythms of city life. His work explores collective power and human interconnectedness themes, typically conveyed by way of dense, summary types that evoke vitality and introspection. Konan’s work are characterised by a hanging palette of reds, yellows, and blacks, with textures and patterns oscillating between chaos and concord. His mastery of narrative abstraction captures the complexities of up to date African life, balancing exuberance and fragility in equal measure.
Unfinished Symphony is a testomony to Konan’s imaginative and prescient of humanity as sacred and resilient. The exhibition invitations viewers to have interaction with life’s perpetual state of turning into, the place remnants of the previous carry the potential for tomorrow’s concord.
About The Melrose Gallery
The Melrose Gallery is a number one pan African Modern gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. The gallery represents established and rising artists whose voices converse to problems with significance to the continent of Africa globally. We’re keen about guaranteeing that the elders who’ve contributed to African Modern Artwork are recognised and proceed to be heard. These inspiring stalwarts present a steady basis to an thrilling younger guard of artists swiftly rising from the African continent and Diaspora to determine themselves globally. We run a curated programme of exhibitions, take part in revered artwork gala’s, assist a lot of our artists of their participation at Biennales and conceptualise and implement important non-commercial exhibitions in affiliation with main museums.
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