Clay Apenouvon
Clay Apenouvon creates works with material and objects, often jet-black and heaving massive bundles of black plastic and rope. Often the substances cover entire spaces, commenting on the invisibility of black artists. Art is a cure, a way to express, and he utilizes his practice as an outlet for his past personal suffering. His material choice emphasizes the scarcity of typical artistic supplies compared to the myriad of waste products, particularly cardboard and packaging.
Leveraging installation as his mode of presenting, his recent series, “Plastic Attack”raises awareness of the danger plastic poses globally. Apenouvon seeks to express the “fatal beauty” of plastic by portraying a foreseen disaster.
Clay Apenouvon lives and works in Aubervilliers (France) and Lomé (Togo).
Main Exhibitions
2017
• Film noir, L’Eruption, Festival de la memoria 2017, MAV Museum Ercolano, curator : Janine Gaëlle DIEUDJI. Italty
• 1:54, African Contemporary Art fair London.
• Africa Now, Le jour qui vient, curator : Marie-Ann Yemsi, Galerie des Galeries, Paris, France.
• Black History month Florence, Film Noir, danse de survie. Le Murate, Florence, Italy.
2016
• Film Noir, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, USA Seattle Art Fair, 2016, Seattle USA.
• Proserpina, Téatro del Opera di Roma, in collaboration, artistic direction: Valentina Carrasco. Roma Italy.
• Cape Town Art Fair 2016, Cape Town, South Africa.
• 1:54 Art Fair New York 2016, New York, USA.
2015
• COP 21 à Saint Merry, Film noir de Lampedusa, Eglise Saint Merry Paris, France.
• Remember to come back, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, USA.
• 154 Art Fair London, Film noir dans un cadre doré, Somerset House, London, UK.
• Visibles/invisibles, Film noir de Lampedusa, curator : Olivier Sultan, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France.
2014
• Plastic attack Monument, 9th edition of Cahors Juin Jardin Festival, Cahors, France.
• L’Art d’en rire, Takeaway, Installation at the Futuroscope Poitiers, France.
• PPO Plastique Particle Observation, Plastic attack, le ver est dans le fruit. ES PACE GT au MundArt, Marseille, France.
2013
• Abiko International Open-air art Exhibition 2013, Plastic Attack, Installation & Sculpture Abiko, Japan.
2012
• Plastic attack 5, installation at the Futuroscope, Poitiers, France.
2011
• Fresh Winds, The international Art Biennale in Gardur. Installation Plastic Attack #1, résidence. Gardur, Island.
• Balade en Yvelynes, Street Art Session 2011, Centre Culturel ECM Le Chaplin, installations Plastic Attack, en fragments, dans les rues du Val Fourré, Mantes la Jolie, France
2007
• Afrique en Yvelines, Homme-age au centre Culturel ECM le Chaplin. In collaboration with Jules Wokam. France.
2005
• Carton en carton sur carton. Une exposition de peinture tout en cartons d’emballages. Atelier Kao, rue de la Commines Paris, France.
African Artists - From 1882 to now
Published on the 21th of october 2021 by Phaidon.
Clay Apenouvon is part of the artists presented in the Phaidon's new publication, African Artists - From 1882 to now.
Meeting in the studio of the Franco-Togolese artist Clay Apenouvon around his work
Louise Thurin for Artskop
After several years spent in painting, graphic design and printing studios, Clay Apenouvon, born in 1970 in Lomé, left his parents' country to settle in Paris. In 2006, the artist stood out with a performance at the opening of the FIAC Paris. Fourteen years later, Artskop3437 met him to discuss his achievements - from his Plastic Attack project to the success of ART Paris 2020.
« Mon noir est un noir plastique, un noir pétrole – un pétrole Total. C’est un noir total, un noir brut. » - Clay Apenouvon
Read more on: https://www.artskop.com/artmedia/fr/or-noir-total-entretien-clay-apenouvon/