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BEAUTY EVERYWHERE

ALL THE TIME

OLAMILEKAN ABATAN

CHRIS BUJIRIRI

DRAMANE DIARRA

FRANCK KEMKENG NOAH

BAYUNGA KIALEUKA

SANTIAGO RODRIGUES OLAZÁBAL

JOURDAN TCHOFFO KUETE

FEBRUARY 26 – MAY 31, 2026

Beauty Everywhere All The Time is an invitation to reconsider all that surrounds us under the positivity lens. That is not to say that we should blindly ignore the many challenges present and future, but rather that we ought to always also keep in mind the immense progress and the formidable human achievements made while getting us where we are today.

With geopolitics in turmoil on all sides of the globe, our propensity to give into fear and pessimism is growing, even though we know from history that such behaviour may easily lead us to increased conservatism, individualism, obscurantism, and the logical breakdown of any established social order. It may take a certain unusual type of fate in humanity to embrace a wider world at peace, but why should such a worthy embrace be a luxury when goodness actually surrounds us wherever we look?

Through these recent works, seven contemporary artists from Africa and the diaspora present us with an honest picture of who we are as human beings. In these paintings, each of them proposes singular narratives that are open to interpretation and further questioning, alarming us to the fact that in a world increasingly made of billions of images (real ones and their artificial derivatives), the essence of humanity lies well beyond what we can still see.

Investigating notions of hybridity and religion, the sacred and the ritual, Santiago Rodrigues Olazábal and Franck Kemkeng Noah highlight the richness of plural dialogues that are birthed by syncretism. Between visible and invisible, their merging visual process reaches well beyond cult, and infuses new culture, informing the way we could relate to the other.

Both presenting outside of Africa for the first time, Chris Bujiriri and Dramane Diarra resolutely inscribe their work in the tradition of neo-surrealism which has gained international momentum recently, as it often does when the world appears to stop making sense. Yet, despite their subtle critic of resource exploitation (in the case of Bujiriri) or techno-driven dehumanization (in the work of Diarra), both artists lay tracks for a better tomorrow. Their paintings attribute a distinctive narrative symbolism to light, which is central in the still lives of the Bujumbura based painter, and semantically Magrittian in the larger formats of Diarra.

Essentially much closer to classic forms of portraiture, Olamilekan Abatan, Bayunga Kialeuka, and Jourdan Tchoffo Kuete all share a deep passion for frontality, with each of their painted protagonist calling upon us to witness or imagine who they truly are. Although relying on very diverse technique and medium to compose, each of these three painters works in a certain continuity, which they uniquely reappropriate to form their very own visual ensemble of contemporary tales.

A meticulous hyperrealist, Abatan champions the beauty of brotherhood, growth, perseverance, and shared existence in black and white. Impregnated with social expressionism, the work by Miami-based Kialeuka relies on layers of thick oil paint to express the complex multi-layered identity of African diasporic individuals, and how they connect. In vivid acrylics, the iconography designed by Tchoffo Kuete purposely borrows visual elements from classic Americana to bathe compositions in a mist of nostalgia, which the artist employs to slow down time, as if each painting was a new breath allowing for the contemplation of the bountiful relationship between women and nature.

Together, these works of art show us that we are still allowed to dream of a better world, all the while reminding us that the one we currently live in is not all that bad, and worth preserving.

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