Laetitia KY is a young Ivorian artist and activist born in 1996 in Abidjan.
She followed an ordinary education in the same city where she grew up and obtained a literary baccalaureate at the age of 16 in 2012. After her baccalaureate she was accepted at the Felix Houphouët Boigny National Polytechnic Institute for studies in commerce and administration.
businesses in a 3-year cycle. After her third year and her end-of-study internship, she realizes that corporate life with its codes and its monotony is not the one that suits her. In 2015 she therefore decided not to continue on this path, and to devote herself instead to her passions, Art and fashion.
In love with African culture, her personal research on the subject made her discover an Africa with an impressive aesthetic, inspiring, original in every way, especially at the hair level. The haircuts of African women in the pre-colonial era, expressive and unusual, immediately caught her attention and created a click in her. Having a natural ease in the practice of hairdressing, this discovery was an infinite source of inspiration and the beginning of everything. She realizes that hair, beyond the aesthetic aspect, could represent a means of expression and a strong identity mark. At this time the hairstyle becomes a spokesperson for her. The hair sculptures that she creates on her long braids, and photographs afterwards, convey a message of self-love, gender equality, acceptance of
differences, tolerance. Each sculpture individually conveys a particular message, but the general idea behind all the works, in addition to representing beauty and black aesthetics, is to advocate for gender equality and encourage others, women in particular. to assume without fear and without restraint in order to flourish.
Her activism in favor of women's rights touches on a lot of subjects. Bodily empowerment, reproductive health, fight against violence, demystification of taboos concerning women's bodies and lives, self-esteem, criticism of certain systems that disadvantage women.
His popularity gradually increases but experiences a boom when one of his photo series goes viral. The series featured her hair sculpted in the shape of hands and is shared on the global web in magazines and media around the world. Today she has more than 6.5 million followers on all her social networks combined.
She is also interested in cinema and made her debut there in 2019 by playing the role of "the queen" in "the night of kings" by Philippe Lacôte. Her second project in the cinema in 2021 is "Disco Boy" by Giacomo Abruzzese where she plays the role of Manuella / Udoka. The movie was awarded with the “Silver bear” prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.
In addition to cinema and hairdressing, fashion, she uses painting as another tool to support her fight. With this medium, she has the ability to create more detailed and expressive images that could hardly be portrayed with hair.
She is the author of a book "Love and Justice" a journey of empowerment, activism and embracing black beauty where she shares her personal experience, the origin of her activism, and illustrates the stories told by her artistic hair photographs.
The magazine Forbes added her name on the 2023 list of the 30 most influential under 30 African people.
Solo shows:
• “Laetitia Ky. Empow’hair”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, LIS10 Gallery, Arezzo, 26
Nov 2022 to 15 Jan 2023
• “Laetitia Ky. Lo sguardo di Medusa”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, Made in Cloister
Foundation, Naples, 03 March to 05 May 2023
• “Who’s that woman”, LIS10 Gallery, Paris, 04 March to 24 June 2023
• “Follow the braid”, in collaboration with Fondazione Elpis & Galleria Continua, Rocca
Sinibalda, 24 June to 24 Sep 2023
• “Photoclimat”, Place de La Bastille, Paris, 14 Sep to 15 Oct 2023
• “L’ambigua avventura”, Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, 8 July to 06 October,
2024
Selected group shows:
• Venice Biennale, “The dreams of a story”, Ivory Coast Pavilion, 23 April to 27 Nov 2022
“Once upon a time in West Africa”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, LIS10 Gallery,
Pietrasanta, 4 June to 20 August 2022
• “Des Cheveux Et Des Poils”, curated by Denis Bruna, Musée des Arts Décoratifs,
Louvre, Paris, 05 April to 17 Sep 2023
• “Sous le regarde de Meduse”, Musée des Beaux Arts, Caen, 15 May to 17 Sep 2023
• “Reversed safari”, curated by Alessandro Romanini, The Manege Central Exhibition
Hall, St. Petersburg, 13 July to 03 Sep 2023
• “Africa Supernova. Carla & Pieter Shulting collection”, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort, 24
Sep to 7 Jan 2023
• “L’Africa e Napoli”, Maschio Angioino, Naples, 26 Nov 2023 to 7 Jan 2024
• “Africa Tunes”, Chiesa e chiostro di Sant’Agostino, Pietrasanta, 20 Jan to 17 March
2024
• “Un-common hairstyles”, 1-54 Art Fair, Starrett Building, New York, 1 to 4 May 2024
• “As formas do Oceano”, curated by Paula Nascimento and Igor Simões, Cordoaria
National, Arco Lisboa, 23 to 26 May 2024
• “Africa Tunes: Re-edit 1”, The Project Space, Pietrasanta, 20 Oct to 22 Dec 2024
• “Nostalgie du future”, curated by Mauro Petroni e Alessandro Romanini, Atelier
Ceramiques Almadies, Dakar, 7 Nov 2024 to 7 Jan 2025
• Kyotographie 2025, Asphodel, Kyoto, Japan, 12 April to 11 May 2025
Public talks:
• “Laetitia Ky. Black beauty activism”, IPER festival, Museo delle Periferie, Roma, 5 to 11
June 2023
• “Osei Bonsu and Laetitia Ky”, Tate Museum, London, 28 July 2023
• “Ted talk”, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia, 12 Oct 2023
Selected private and public collections:
• Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Indiana, US
• The Carla and Pieter Shulting Collection, Amersfoort, Netherland
• Fenix Museum, Rotterdam, Netherland
• Unapologetically, The Chicago Booth London Art collection, London, UK
• Casa Masaccio Museum, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy
• Black Tarantella Art Collection, Naples, Italy