Olivier Mboma
viJERA

For me, art is the abstraction of one's own experiences onto canvas. Each brushstroke, blob and choice of colour reflects the artist's deep longings, fears, desires and dreams and allows the viewer not only a glimpse into the artist's mind, but also a resonance of their own soul to get to know themselves a little better. Weaknesses and strengths are inherent aspects of life and should not stop us from reaching out to each other. Art is used to create a safe space that challenges and even removes societal filters to create more acceptance in this sometimes difficult world. Show me your art (collection) and I will show you who you are.

My main source of inspiration is my cultural background, but also the life around me. In my various series, I try to show, among other things, strong black women in various complex haute couture dresses, but deliberately reduced to two dimensions in strict but also ephemeral geometric orders. The traditional African hairstyles adorned with gold serve to emphasise the importance of this cultural heritage. Furthermore, it is important to me to have an intentional counterfactual narrative of the famous sujets and artworks in history.  In doing so, I seek to challenge the common representations of black and white in contemporary society with my own vision of contemporary eroticism and encourage the viewer to allow for other narratives, with the hope and invitation to open the Eurocentric narrative to a cosmopolitan one in which Afrocentrism, Asiocentrism and any ethnocentrism can find equal acceptance.

Music plays an essential role in my creative process. Rhythms and melodies help me to guide the brush strokes and make the sketch in my head a reality. The mood of the song channels the energy and allows me to focus more on my work and switch off at the same time. I work with different media such as acrylic, charcoal, pastel, oil and gold leaf, always trying to explore my main muses through the great masters of art such as Gustav Klimt, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele or Jean-Michel Basquiat.