For immediate release
Beya Gille Gacha
Hide and Seek
August 26 – October 7, 2023
Opening August 26, 5-8 pm, Artist will be present
Keijsers Koning is proud to present Beya Gille Gacha’s first solo exhibition in the US, titled “Hide and Seek.” On view will be five of her beaded, signature sculptures as well as a selection of her pigment paintings. Referring to the popular children’s game, Gacha unapologetically draws her inspiration from her mixed heritage, which is Cameroonian and French, and its impact on life from youth to adulthood. The thread in her narration is the sensibility of a human core navigating the current climate.
Coming from an intersectional perspective, the artist explores themes of mixed race, mixed culture, a second-generation immigrant as well as being a “woman” and what the different roles may entail. She compassionately explores the expectations and finding that balance throughout her work. Each of the five sculptures has its own soul, sometimes with observing eyes, staring at the viewer. In part influenced by African and Western classicism, the figures are inquisitive, assured, and possess a presence. These works are created from silicon gypsum molds with a layer of wax that allows the embedding of glass beads which acts as skin. The glistening glass beads are inspired by the tradition of Bamileke, a technique of bead work originating in Cameroon, but to achieve this rendering so close to bodies, Beya Gille Gacha invented her own unique technique. These beads are a symbol of fortune, and the color blue is a semblance of royalty, endowing these sculptures with the promise of hope, while footed in a sharp reality that has left its mark.
The paintings are created out of rag paper, medicinal plants, pigments, and natural dyes, which indicate the spiritual traditions and functions related to fertility, health, and wealth. The combination of the fluidity of the dyes that inundate the fibers and the pigments pushing into the paper create a visceral presence in the works. These paintings are rituals of liberation, a form of meditation by the artist. Like the sculptures, these works address the coming of age, its desillusions, its obligations, its revelations, and consequently, the different roles one may need to play in the process of growth and elevation.
Beya Gille Gacha (1990, Paris) entered the Ecole du Louvre in 2002, where she developed her sensitivity to classical African, Global Asian, and Oceanic arts. She has exhibited at international events such as 1-54 New York (USA), AKAA (France), the Biennale de Dakar (Senegal) in 2022, the Biennale de Ouagadougou in 2019 (Burkina Faso), where she won 1st prize (Prix Leridon), as well as at emblematic venues such as the Galleria Nazionale in Rome, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Grand Palais in Paris, the Musée National du Cameroun, the MAIF Social Club in Paris and the Tropiques Atrium - Scène Nationale in Fort-de-France.
Her work has been acquired by the Smithsonian Museum Of African Art; the World Bank; the FENIX Museum in Rotterdam, as well as private collections such as the Léridon collection (Cape Town, Paris), Imago Mundi by Luciano Benetton (Treviso), and is in the collection of Beth DeWoody (the Bunker, FL).
Please contact the gallery for additional information and images at info@keijserskoning.com or 415.961.5391
