Notes

The gestural mark-making and neo-expressionist figuration in this large drawing is typical of his black-paper drawings. Oussou favours paper over canvas as his primary medium. ‘Paper is very sculptural … The physical quality of paper is paramount for me. It’s the physical quality of the human being.’¹ Oussou’s earliest drawings were small works inspired by the slates used by schoolchildren, but in 2014 he started to experiment with larger works such as this, which are now his standard practice.

Thierry Oussou is a self-taught artist who works with drawing, painting, video, installation, and performance. His idiosyncratic practice borrows from archaeological methods and explores the relationship between contemporary art and ethnographic objects. In 2011, Oussou founded Atelier Ye in Benin as an informal art school where artists could assemble and exchange ideas. His practice caught the attention of artists Meschac Gaba and Barthélémy Toguo, who he subsequently assisted. Born in Benin, Oussou now lives and works in Amsterdam, where he studied art at the Rijksakademie from 2015 to 2016.

^1. Anna McNay. (2018) ‘Thierry Oussou’, Studio International, 8 August, [Online], https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/thierry-oussou-i-would-like-to-makepeople-think-differently, accessed 8 December 2018.