Abdoulaye Konaté is a Malian artist renowned for his vivid, colourful, and meticulously detailed large-scale textile installations that reflect his personal life, political stance and the complicated history of traditional West African craftsmanship. His textile-based installations are made from woven and dyed clothes from Mali.
His work is currently on view at the Primo Marella Gallery. This solo exhibition is showcasing two large-scale artworks that has been previously exhibited at the 14th edition of Dak’Art – Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain of Dakar (2022): Reine et Roi Ashanti (2021) and Oiseau gris à queue jaune (2021). In addition to these two works, Konaté is showing eight brand new and unique artworks specially made for this exhibition at the Primo Marella Gallery. The gallery is giving the audience an opportunity to interact with Abdoulaye Konaté’s art and artistic process.
Image courtesy of Primo Marella Gallery
On the catalogue of the 14th edition of Dak’Art – Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain of Dakar (2022), El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, the Artistic Director says:
“On the one hand, aesthetics result from working with materials. The dexterity of the artist lies in his ability to play with textiles, giving them reliefs and shapes, with a graduation of colours that suggests movement just on the basis of the nuance of the hues. His compositions testify to a subtle chromaticism in the arrangement of the pieces of fabric and the presence of important reliefs thanks to integrated objects. The minimalist regularity of the discontinuous bands introduces the formation of volumes and creates optical effects that sometimes come in a series of abstractions”.
Konaté’s work is known for his ability to communicate with the textiles he uses in his work. His titles are also symbolic and profund, and they reveal the humanist side and political nature of the artist. Konaté’s process involves witnessing and introspecting on personal and political issues through his textile-based installations, made from woven, dyed clothes, traditional Malian cotton. In his work, he also makes use of different types of foreign textiles.
Using a unique process of assemblage, Konaté cuts-up, dyes, sews, and reassembles pieces of fabric. He then reconfigures them into large-scale, boldly coloured tapestries with incredibly detailed surfaces to create an arresting optical effect.
There is no denying the intimate nature of Konaté’s art. As he tackles serious societal issues by questioning the different ways that humanity has been affected by factors – like war, religion, globalisation, and the AIDS epidemic- , his work is immersed with vibrant colours that keep the viewer engaged to remind them of the significance of his compositions.
Image courtesy of Primo Marella Gallery
Abdoulaye Konaté has exhibited in different museums and biennials from all over the world. In 2020 Konaté was invited to participate in the exhibition “Global(e) Resistance” at Centre Pompidou, Paris, with one of his historical installations, dated 1995-1996. In 2021, Abdoulaye Konaté had his first solo exhibition in Japan, “The Diffusion of Infinite Things”, which was held in Standing Pine spaces in Nagoya. In 2022, his exhibition “Hommage à Abdoulaye Konaté, l’étoffe d’un maître”, was presented at the Former Palais de Justice (Courthouse), Cap Manuel, Dakar. In 2023, three of his monumental works will be exhibited at the 14th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea.
His solo show which opened on the 9th of February at the Primo Marella Gallery, Milan will close on the 24th of March, 2023.
