Christophe Person Contemporary Art from Africa

Christophe Person has developed his eye for the contemporary scene on the African continent during his many travels. In the 2010s, he reinvented auction sales by offering collectors catalogued and curated sales representing the richness and diversity of African creation, highlighting little-known geographies and periods.

Biography

After launching the contemporary African art department at Piasa in 2016 and heading that of Artcurial in 2021 and 2022, Christophe Person opens his eponymous gallery, specializing in contemporary African art and its diaspora, in December 2022. The gallery sets itself apart from other galleries working with African or Afro-descendant artists, by avoiding a commercial production with a repetitive aesthetic that may even be a little too easy or catchy.

Given their origins and life trajectories, African artists have the capacity to bring a highly relevant point of view to bear on the state of the world. Many of them share their lives between the African continent and the West. This dual point of view enables them to better understand societal issues, whether linked to questions of identity, the environment or the flow of goods and people between North and South. Many of them are keen to open up a dialogue with the whole world.

Christophe Person is also involved in several projects on the continent. He is co-president and co-founder of BISO, the Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou.

Since its opening, the gallery has offered a program of committed exhibitions including:

Explorer l'intime - L'art textile, porte drapeau des artistes femmes et LGBT - Vanités by Joseph Hoggar - L'art en Guerre, group show curated by Madiha Sebbani - Tati, 1997 by Samuel Fosso - Mame Coumba Bang, photography series by Nyaba Leon Ouedraogo curated by Marie Moignard - Afro Glitch, group show - 28x4, Et la sève fût... 1, by Ghizlaine Sahli - La Terre aux hommes bienveillants, by Sokey Edorh, curated by Armelle Malvoisin - Le Chaos, atelier de dieu by Fally Sène Sow and Paul Ndema.