Catalogue Everyday Heroes - Daniel Onguene - June 2021 - p.p.

DANIEL ONGUENE




















































EVERYDAY HEROES


26/6 - 1/8/21

Barcelona - Spain

DANIEL ONGUENE
Born 1995 in Bafoussam, Cameroon
Works and lives in Douala, Cameroon
































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Adventure Between the Ruins
by Sylvain Sankalé



The period of independence, some sixty years ago, saw the
creation of the first fine arts schools on the continent, the first
individual and group exhibitions, festivals and other events. The
euphoria of this freedom, at times hard-fought, the nationalist
movements, the return to roots and origins, all this enthusiastic
speech was transferred into the works that we admire from
Dakar to Yaoundé via Brazzaville! Africa was beautiful, it could
finally mix its voice with the concert of nations, its identity
became a source of pride and everything had to reflect this
faith in a better tomorrow that would inevitably sing.



A generation later, many cries of joy have died down, disputes
have arisen, African unity has been shattered and the march
towards development raises questions in all segments of the
population. The rural exodus causes its multiple ravages,
which are multiplied tenfold by a general atmosphere of laxity
and fatalism. The countryside hit by all manner of human and
natural calamities is being emptied in favor of cities which were
not designed to absorb such large population growth.



















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Problems arise at all levels of life for the city dwellers. Accelerated
urbanization no longer obeys the slightest standard. The
networks, whether electrical or sanitation, are suffocating

under the weight of anarchy and lack of maintenance. Finally,
the few industries that have been able to exist, of poor size, true
"white elephants" as the artist calls them, collapsed. Plagued
by "structural adjustments", liberalization policies have been
rolled out at all costs. For example, the opening of borders
to productions from all over he world, China in particular, is
alluded to in some of the artist’s work, the domestic sectors
that tried to survive no matter what.




















SOTRAMAS | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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It is this Africa of today, and this very disenchanted youth of
Africa, that Alexis Daniel Onguene Tassi seeks to represent, like

many artists of his generation, who at just twenty-six years of
age, made their sensational entrance into the artistic creation
of our continent.





















THE WARRIOR | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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It is true that he has a master's degree in visual arts and art
history, with a focus on painting, obtained just two years

ago at the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Douala in
Nkongsamba; he shows a surprising mastery of his technique.
He was distinguished and awarded at the age of twenty by
the Jack Bell Gallery in London, who scrutinizes the most
promising talents of contemporary African art, thanks to
a competition open to art schools on the African continent.
He continued his journey, exhibiting several times in the best
galleries in Cameroon, including the MAM Gallery in 2017

















PASSAGE DE BALAIS | 2020

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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under the curatorship of Simon jami. The present exhibition at
the Out of Africa Gallery is the first real exhibition of Onguene’s
work on the European continent.



The "Adventure Between the Ruins" project, which he presents
to us here, questions, in his own words "the causes of the
emergence of the informal sector in Africa". Illustrated on the
gray backgrounds of a chaotic world, almost already buried in
the past, the daily life of these anonymous “heroes”, painted
with precision in a very figurative way, who strive to survive
however they can, through the practice of an exhausting
multitude of "odd jobs”. One wonders how they manage to
feed themselves and even their families.














AU COEUR DE LA FRICHE | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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There is a great deal of empathy in Onguene’s work, which
shows in the affection and respect he demonstrates in his
characters who remain dignified when they are not dynamic and
combative, in bright and spicy colors, despite the harshness of
the times. He even manages to convey a bit of symbolic hope,
as in the particularly illustrative work entitled "The Life After

the Fall". It features a former industrial worker who appears
among ruins in the background and who seems to bear all the
misery of the world on his shoulders. His four wives are lined
up along a wall behind him, but all of them are pregnant and
therefore bearers of life and hope. Past, present and future
brought together in one and the same allegory which is also a
good representation of the message of the artist whose career
is to be followed with interest.






Sylvain Sankalé
Art writer
Dakar, Senegal
June 2021







L'ANNONCE DIVINE | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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STUDIES
2019 | Master in visual arts and art history – option painting –
University of Douala, Nkongsamba, Cameroon























LA VIE APRÈS LA CHUTE | 2021

120cm H x 200cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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GROUP SHOWS

2021 | “Everyday heroes” – Duo Show – OOA Gallery – Barcelona,
Spain



2020 | “Urbana facta” – Gallery Du Carré – Bonapriso – Douala,
Cameroon
“Art 2020, patrimoine contemporain” – Espace Doual’Art
Bananjo – Douala, Cameroon

















FOGAPE | 2020

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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2019 | “The kay” – Any Kadji Gallery – Bonapriso – Douala,
Cameroon



2018 | “Moving frontiers, do and undo” – Paris, France (restitution
of the exhibition organized in Douala, Cameroon in 2017)






















KIN-KIN | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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2017 | “Moving frontiers, do and undo” – Douala, Cameroon
(Post-master project including graduate students from the
National Art School of Paris Cergy, assisted by students
from the Institute of Fine Arts of the University of Douala
in Nkongsamba, in partnership with the French Institute of
Cameroon and the Contemporary Art Center Doual'art).
Salon Urbain de Douala (SUD 2017), “La place de l'humain”,
exhibition off “Avis de tsunami” – Gallery Carré des Artistes
– Douala, Cameroon
“Who are my people?” – MAM Gallery, at the end of the
project "At work chapter 9", curated by Simon Njami.


2015 | Art Price – Jack Bell Gallery – London, UK (through an art
competition open to art schools on the African continente)














THE BRAVE AND THE WHITE ELEPHANT | 2021

120cm H x 110cm W | Acrylic on canvas - ENQUIRE

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For enquiries please contact
Sorella Acosta
+34 618 356 351 - [email protected]
OOA Gallery - Carrer Nou 1 - 08870 Sitges - Barcelona - Spain
www.outofafricagallery.com

Out of Africa Gallery @OutofAfrica_Art @outofafricagallery