Alphabête B, 2016, wood and mixed media, 125 x 150 cm (49 1/4 x 59 in.)
Robilant+Voena will dedicate its London gallery to a selection of paintings, sculptures and installation works by Tayou. The selection reflects the artist’s multifaceted practice, working across media and transferring his visual investigations effortlessly between themes as wide-ranging as consumerism, colonialism, the environment, cultural identity, and childhood to name but a few – always taking himself as a person as the starting point for his works. Reflecting Tayou’s belief in the intertwined nature of life and art, many of the works incorporate ephemera, found materials, and cultural artefacts representing his Central African heritage and his experiences living, travelling and working across the globe.
The artist’s mastery of storytelling and visual subversion is a constant through the works in the exhibition. Large-scale works such as Dirty Mirror (2015), Calabasses (2015) and Step by Step (2023–25) incorporate common objects to engage with issues such as self-perception and rampant consumerism, while Flipflop Chalks (2025) recasts the traditional use of the medium into a pastelhued field that ebbs and flows between painting and sculpture. The selection also includes two examples from Tayou’s Alphabête series (both 2016), which shows the plurality of the artist’s speeches and examines the differences between oral and written traditions, and Invasion (2024), which comprises a map of Africa peppered with darts bearing the flags of European colonizing nations. New iterations of the monumental cloud-like sculpture Coton Tige, first conceived for the Serpentine Galleries in 2015–16, appear at once both childlike and violent, speaking to histories of oppression and exploitation. Also on display are examples of the artist’s distinctive crystal and wooden masks, symbolising the ancestral spirits in Tayou’s practice, and also suggesting the complexity of modern identity.
Opening Hours
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat by appointment
Location:
38 Dover St
London, W1S 4NL
Copyright text and images the gallery and the artist