Literature

Capo Cassidy (2016) Painting a New Picture of Africa, online, https://calloffthesearch.com/art-entertainment/painting-new-picture-africa/, illustrated in colour, accessed 11 August 2024.

Notes

Produced through digitally manipulated photographic collages, a fictitious young African couple is the subject of Pierre-Christophe Gam's seductive and compelling compositions. The visual appeal of the Affogbolos recalls Italian Renaissance portraiture, mixed and contrasted with cultural references that Gam utilises to bring our awareness to the cultural dynamics of the contemporary African young elite; “The Affogbolos are emblematic of a new generation of global citizen of African origin, locally rooted in their tradition and culture but with at the same time a distinctive global outlook”¹. The work is a question of power, influence and the African Renaissance.²

^1. https://www.50golborneart.com/past-exhibitions, accessed 26 January 2023.

^2. https://africanah.org/pierre-christophe-gam/, accessed 15 November 2022.

Born in Paris to a Cameroonian father and Chadian mother, Pierre-Christophe Gam trained as an architect at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and at Central St. Martins School in London. He specialised in art direction for luxury brands including Maison Margiela, Kenzo, and Cartier. Influenced by his multicultural upbringing, in 2013 he founded Afro-Polis. The aim of this cultural, educational, and philanthropic platform is to promote emerging and established artists from Africa, primarily through exhibitions and events in Paris and London. His own artistic production focuses on digitally manipulated photographic collages where he explores the relationship between post-colonial modernist thinking and current economic and social change on the African continent. Gam has exhibited extensively in Europe and Africa, including at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Lagos Photo Festival, and the Addis Foto Fest.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the current owner in 2016.

Property of a Collector.