Skip to Content

Benjamin Deguenon

Painter | Benin

Benjamin Deguenon (1982) creates sculptures, paintings, drawings and installations in his own unique primitive style, reminiscent of Basquiat and Miró, revealing an associative imagery full of stories.

I am fascinated by relationships in life, how everything is connected and how actions and reactions shape the world we live in. 


We can act as victims or prisoners of circumstances or we can start a dialogue

to create mutual awareness

and understanding,

reach out beyond our own personal interest to reshape a better future 

Portrait

Benjamin Deguenon (1982) is an autodidact artist from Benin, who received his artistic formation through his 5-year apprenticeship with the well recognized  Beninese artist Dominic Zinkpé and various other trainings through ESMA and international residencies. 

His world is populated with extravagant creatures with beaks, claws, talons, tails, straight out of the flute of an urban Pan, chimeras stemming from a personal mythology which he removes from the street, from the city, from life. Quartered without disenchantment between before and now, it draws as one spreads its wings, from above, sweeping the landscape from the heights to get an overview. In his sculptures and installations, Deguenon recuperates and recovers from everyday life to sew up his investigations, from his childhood to invent an urban mythology. Not only recovers materials, techniques, the idea of communion between man and nature, he recovers his anxieties from the intimate to deliver those of others, in fact a pantheon of unrealities, in wood, adorned with iron, adorned with fabrics, installations-exorcisms that expose him.

His beautiful energy, the projection of a fury to exist in a mutant society where the sacred withers away where individuals get lost, is channeled into the drawings that extend his approach on a more fragile medium, with more sensitive tools. In his latest series of paintings, Deguenon cuts back to a minimalistic colour palette, enforcing the power of his imagary.

Deguenon has participated in many group and solo exhibitions in Benin, Senegal, Togo and France. His works can be found in several international collections and publications on Beninese art. 


Benjamin Deguenon (1982) is an autodidact artist from Benin, who received his artistic formation through his 5-year apprenticeship with the well recognized  Beninese artist Dominic Zinkpé and various other trainings through ESMA and international residencies. 


His world is populated with extravagant creatures with beaks, claws, talons, tails, straight out of the flute of an urban Pan, chimeras stemming from a personal mythology which he removes from the street, from the city, from life. Quartered without disenchantment between before and now, it draws as one spreads its wings, from above, sweeping the landscape from the heights to get an overview. In his sculptures and installations, Deguenon recuperates and recovers from everyday life to sew up his investigations, from his childhood to invent an urban mythology. Not only recovers materials, techniques, the idea of communion between man and nature, he recovers his anxieties from the intimate to deliver those of others, in fact a pantheon of unrealities, in wood, adorned with iron, adorned with fabrics, installations-exorcisms that expose him.

His beautiful energy, the projection of a fury to exist in a mutant society where the sacred withers away where individuals get lost, is channeled into the drawings that extend his approach on a more fragile medium, with more sensitive tools. In his latest series of paintings, Deguenon cuts back to a minimalistic colour palette, enforcing the power of his imagary.


Deguenon has participated in many group and solo exhibitions in Benin, Senegal, Togo and France. His works can be found in several international collections and publications on Beninese art. 



Works

Your Dynamic Snippet will be displayed here... This message is displayed because you did not provided both a filter and a template to use.

Interested in more works of this artist?

View all available works in our catalog

Credentials

2022

  • Solo exhibition, l’Espace culturelle Le Parking, Cotonou, Benin
  • “The World = Dialogue” at OpenArtExchange, Schiedam (Rotterdam region), Netherlands


2020

  • Exposition personnel à la Galerie Alain DETTINGER, France


2013

  • Audience / Institut français – Cotonou, Benin
  • Irréalités / Galerie R9 – Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, France


2011

  • Scénographie du spectacle Nuit de Parole, de Patrice Toton / Institut français – Cotonou, Benin


2010

  • Fenêtres / Galerie Farafina – Cotonou, Benin

2023

  • FInAB Tokp’Art fair (Cotonou/Benin), represented by OpenArtExchange


2022

  • C’est Benin en Majesté, Galerie Valoise – La librairue aux 4 vents, Dak’Art Biennale – OFF  Dakar, Senegal
  • ART The Hague (The Netherlands), represented by OpenArtExchange
  • Nachtbrötchen Amsterdam (The Netherlands), represented by OpenArtExchange 


2021

  • AKAA Paris, represented by OpenArtExchange, Netherlands
  • Exposition collective, Galerie Vallois, Paris, France
  • Exposition collective Au Salon du Livre Rare et de l’Objet d’Art à Paris (represented by Galerie Vallois)
  • Vente au Enchère à La Maison Good Représenter par Versant Sud
  • Exposition collectif du SPECIAL COVID-19 BOULEV’ART CHANTIER CREATIF au  Centre Culturel Français- Cotonou 
  • Exposition collectif du SPECIAL COVID-19 BOULEV’ART au carrefour Ste Cécile Cotonou 


2020

  • Exposition avec de la Galerie Vallois « LA OU L’ÂME SE PLAÎT » au FOYER DU CARROUSEL DU  LOUVRE 


2019

  • Exposition AFRIQUE au Château de Tanlay avec la galerie Vallois (Les impromptus du Bénin) 
  • Exposition collective « PANORAMA » au centre lobozounkpa 
  • Parcours des mondes Galerie VALLOIS (Les ASEN Art du Bénin) 

2018

  • Exposition collective d’art contemporain « THE WEEK » organisé à la Maison rouge par HBMC 
  • Jouets et fétiches » à la Galerie Mathilde hatzenberger gallery Bruxelles/Belgique 


2017

  • Exposition à la Galerie Vallois « Cotonou Paris Cotonou » 
  • Exposition collectives avec la galerie vallois « Ma Pas Ta » à la villa Arson / Nice 
  • Exposition à la FOIRE St’ART à Strasbourg par la galerie Mathilde hatzenberger gallery 


2016 

  • Exposition ART PARIS ART FAIR avec la galerie Vallois 


2015

  • Exposition collective esclavage moderne à l’UNESCO Paris avec la galerie vallois 
  • Exposition esclavage moderne galerie VALLOIS Paris 
  • Exposition interférences à la galerie L’UAP rue de Fontenelle à Rouen

2022

  • OpenArtExchange gallery – Schiedam (Rotterdam region), Nederland


2021

  • Galerie Valois – Paris, France


2015

  • Ateliers des artistes – Rouen, Frankrijk


2012

  • L’un dans l’autre (Ateliers de Belleville) – Paris, Frankrijk
  • UNIK – Abomey, Benin


2008

  • Village des Arts, Dak’Art Off – Dakar, Senegal
  • Alain Charles DETTINGER  
  • La Galerie Vallois  
  • L‘Institut Français  
  • La Fondation Cartier  
  • Michael Raynor  
  • Louis de Strycker  
  • American embassy in Benin
  • Françoise Movilliat