Angèle Etoundi Essamba
Born 1962 in Douala, Cameroon
Lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Angèle Etoundi Essamba is an artist engaged in a reflection on the African woman’s identity. Her vision is at the same time aesthetic, idealistic, realistic, and societal. She joins the spirit of humanist photography with a strong attachment to the values of communion. With colourful, tangled, and intertwined threads, she speaks of filial, matrimonial, and transmission relationships. Beauty, symbolism, and realistic utopia are illustrated by sculptural headdresses and a control of colours. For nearly thirty years, she has observed the world through the women she photographs. Her images are marked by an absolute desire to know and understand. Since her first exhibition in 1985 at the Maison Descartes in Amsterdam, her work has been frequently exhibited in museums, institutions, biennales, fairs, and galleries around the world.
Angèle Etoundi Essamba, A-FIL-IATION series, 2022. Courtesy of Galerie Carole Kvasnevski.

Artists 2022