Yeanzi is a visual artist born in KATIOLA in Côte d'Ivoire.
He lives and works between Abidjan and Paris. He is also a teacher and promoter of cultural projects.
A graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-arts d'Abidjan, from which he graduated top of his class in 2012, he was trained in painting and photography.
Yeanzi has established himself as one of the most important contemporary African artists of the last decade.
With a passion for the humanities, particularly philosophy, history and psychosociology, his work focuses on issues of identity and understanding the evolution of humanity.
YEANZI also explores plastic and technical issues, using a wide variety of materials, mediums and techniques (fused plastic, fabric, plexiglass, board, paper, PVC, photography, traditional screen printing, collage, pictograms, calligraphy characters, ideograms, etc.).
Yeanzi is also a street art enthusiast, a 'multitasking' creator who has worked as a commissioned portrait painter for nearly ten years.
Since 2013, he has been pursuing research and creative work that revolves around three collections (PERSONA 2013, PROJECTION 2016, COLLOQUIUM 2018) that constitute the main thrusts of his fundamental theme ̋ THEIDENTITAIRE QUESTION̋.
A working process in which the artist questions personality (PERSONA), community (PROJECTIONS) and the place of historical memory in the process of building the development of societies and peoples (COLLOQUIUM). He melts plastic to create faces, silhouettes and realistic and surreal scenes.
YEANZI uses different media and materials depending on the complexity of the different technical aspects of the subject. For him, "technique is only an instrument at the service of the theme, which must itself be the essence drawn from societal changes and the questions that arise from them".
In 2013, he won the "Bene Hoane" prize and the "GRAND PRIX GUY NAIRAY", a major award for artist of the year in Côte d'Ivoire. He also took part in the "Jeux de la Francophonie" in Nice, France, the same year.
Since 2009, his work has been regularly presented by the Eureka gallery, the rotonde des arts contemporains (2012), the Donwahi foundation (2014), the Cécile Fakhoury gallery (2015), the Nil Gallery Paris (2018), the montresso foundation (2018), the Melbye-Konan gallery Hamburg (2020), in numerous solo and group exhibitions:
– Abidjan jeune talent ! on dit quoi ? (2012)
– AAA Abidjan art actuel (2014)
– Art prize (2014)
– 1.5A contemporary african art fair (2014, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021)
– Art Dubaï (2015)
– Dak’art off (2016)Pulse art fair Miami (2018, 2020)
– Art one paper New York (2018)
– Art market San Francisco (2018)
– Seattle art fair (2018)
– INDISCIPLINE (2018)
– AKAA Alsa Know as Africa (2018)
– ILLUSION IDENTITAIRE (2021) Hambourg
He made his debut at the Mohamed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat in 2017 as part of the exhibition Afrique en capital.
In 2022, his work was selected to represent the Ivory Coast pavilion at the 59th Venice International Biennale and also at the 14th Dak'art Pan-African Biennale.
