Rafiy Okefolahan
Painter and sculptor | Benin
Okefolahan is a multidisciplinary artist, who creates colourful, textured neo-expressionistic paintings. Humans are always at the center of his works, although the figures are often obscured by heavy layers of abstraction.
My figures, though abstracted, carry the weight of real-life struggles and emotions."
Portrait
Rafiy Okefolahan (1979 Porto Novo) is a multidisciplinary artist, who started his formal training in glas painting and photography and experiments also with performance art and sculpting, but found his real expressive edge in painting. Okefolahan draws his inspiration from daily urban life around him and puts humans at the center of his work, in all their ups and downs of their daily struggles.
Giving the invisables a voice against the myth of violence. His colorful neo-expressionist textures, made from a mixture of materials with acrylics at its base, breath a vigorous, almost palpable energy, which gives a sense of urgency to the figures he portrays. Figures obscured by heavy layers of abstraction, carrying hints of Basquiat and Bacon, but distinctly different in his own style and expression.
Rafiy Okefolahan (1979, Porto Novo) is a multidisciplinary artist, who started his formal training in glass painting and photography and also experiments with performance art and sculpting, but who found his real expressive edge in painting. Okefolahan draws his inspiration from daily urban life around him and puts humans at the center of his work, in all the ups and downs of their daily struggles.
Okefolahan's work is marked by the rich cultural and spiritual heritage he grew up with in Benin, land of the glorious kings of Dahomey and their legendary amazone warriors, but also their violent atrocities with the slave trade as an all-time low. Coming from a mixed catholic and muslim family, living at the heartland of the Vodoun with its rich traditions and ancestral rituals, his work breaths spirituality, from the conscious choice of colors and natural materials to more explicit ancestral references.
Giving the invisibles a voice against the myth of violence, his colorful neo-expressionist textures, made from a mixture of natural materials like earth, sand, rust, charcoal or coffee grounds with oil paints and pigments at its base, breath a vigorous, almost palpable energy, which gives a sense of urgency to the figures he portrays. Figures obscured by heavy layers of abstraction, carrying hints of Basquiat and Bacon, but distinctly different in his own style and expression.
Okefolahan has showcased his performances, installations and paintings primarily in Benin and France (Paris), as well as in Senegal, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Togo, French Guinea, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Notably, he has been participating in the prestigious Dak’Art Biennale in 2022 and in the first AFiRIperFOMA Biënnale, in Zimbabwe in 2013.
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Works
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Credentials
2024
- Porteurs de rêves, porteurs de charges, part of the Africapitales event - Lavoir Moderne Parisien, Paris, France
2023
- L'imaginaire (ceci n'est pas une boite à souvenirs), La Grande Place, Porto-Novo, Benin
- Au clair de la Lune, La Grande Place, Porto-Novo, Benin
- Les témoins silencieux, Galerie Lazarew, Paris, France
- Effigies (and artistic performance for the opening)
2022
- Irawo, Galerie Lazarew, Paris, France
2020
- Jazz it up!, La Maison Rouge, Cotonou, Benin
- Aïdo-Hwedo, Galerie Lazarew, Paris, France
2024
- Gléhoué – Home of the Earth, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam (Rotterdam), Netherlands
- La Fusion des Impossibles, La Grande Place, Porto-Novo, Benin
- Vodoun Arts Festival, Congolese Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium
2022
- (Re)connections, La Grande Place, Porto-Novo, Benin
2023
- 'Arts et développement', Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and at the AFD Campus in Marseille, France
2014
- 'Asiko' Program: Intensive courses in Art History and Conservation (program directed by Bisi Silva and the Center of Contemporary Art of Lagos), Dakar, Senegal
2011
- Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2006-2007
- National School of Arts of Dakar, Department of Fine Arts, Senegal
2023
- Project "Dancing, illustrating, and inventing the environment of lagoon banks," conducted in Benin and supported by the Metis fund of the French Development Agency (AFD) for local artists engaging in Art and development. (Awareness-raising actions on environmental issues in primary schools in the city of Porto-Novo, using the example of lagoon banks through various workshops)
2021
- Artistic performance 'La Procession'. Filmed performance broadcasted live on March 22 for the International Water Day, during the event 'Water and Climate, Source of Life and Ecological Challenge on the African Continent' (sharing experiences and expertise of the NGO ID echoing the artistic performance)
2019
- Establishment of the cultural venue 'La Grande Place' (Porto-Novo, Benin). A place for experimentation, residencies, and training, focused on educating young people and reflecting on political and environmental issues
2021
- Creation residency at the Réservoir, Sète, France
2019
- Residency in French Guiana, Amazon, and photographic research project "Morpho-Logy"