Jean David Nkot: Voyage en Lethargie

Private view Thursday 31 October, 6 - 8 pm.

Jack Bell Gallery is pleased to present a new body of paintings on canvas by contemporary artist Jean David Nkot. In his second solo exhibition with the gallery, Nkot continues to address themes surrounding trans-African migration. His works combine detailed portraits with layers of complex cartographic information. 

Jean-David Nkot draws up a sensual, realistic and wandering mapping of all these human beings led to the unknown by the dramatic situations in their native lands. He draws on the memory of these uprooted people to build a powerful work, filled with emotion and not without poetry for paying tribute to them and testifying. By putting a face on all these exiled persons he restores their dignity and reminds us that the world history has been made of exiles, of migrations, of tragedies, of sufferings but also of hope. In doing so his painting carries within itself some questionings about our societies, about their abilities to resolve conflicts, to face environmental and economic challenges. This artistic commitment gives rise to striking paintings that place humanity at the heart of his aesthetic choices.

- Floréal Duran

Nkot was born 1989, Douala, Cameroon, where he continues to live and work. His work has recently been included in an exhibition curated by Simon Njami at the Cameroon National Museum, Yaoundé.