Sanda Amadou
Visual artist | Benin
Amadou's universe is a mostly black and white world with a touch of color, somewhere between reality and fantasy. With his unique semi-abstract visual language, Amadou reinterprets the nomadic Fulani universe and brings it to life. A dream world formed by various intertwined and sometimes overlapping elements (ropes, lianas, knots, leaves, circles and other patterns from the ancient Fulani tattoos), with a story about humanism, resistance, tenacity, resilience, courage, freedom and some other observations.
Portrait
Sanda Amadou was born and raised in 1978 in a Fulani community in Northern Benin. He holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics (University of Ghana, Accra) and received art education through residencies and master’s workshops. He lived and worked in Lagos for several years, but returned to Cotonou, Benin in 2019. From his early childhood he drew, fascinated by the culture and tattoos of the nomadic Fulani, which he still studies and reinterprets.
Amadou has developed a unique semi-abstract style of drawing and painting, exploring and depicting the universe based on these impressive body marks and spent the first 6 years of his artistic career (1999-2005) on Fulani tattoos. His first solo exhibition was held in Nyamey (Republic of Niger) in 2002 at the Palais des Congres. From 2006 onwards, he redirected his research on the universe of the nomadic Fulani herdsmen, increasingly connecting it to the outside world, mixing and connecting it in various ways with other worlds of culture, for example in his dance, poetry and divinities studies. His divinities study led him amongst others to the concept of sacredness.
His works seem to obey a rigorous geometry and forms complex architectures, which are simultaneously playful and surprisingly fragile. Lines, circles, triangles and quadrilaterals, semi-mathematical figures that are never perfect, connect Fulani symbols of natural life with ropes at its base. His images result in imaginary forms and grotesque figures that show a ragged vulnerability, ethereal and always in motion. They allow the viewer to glimpse an unreal essence.
In his more recent work Amadou is experimenting with 3D effects adding different textures and sculpting on canvas with plated synthetic hairs in different variations. For his Sacred places series he uses these braids to create sacred forest monasteries as a metaphor for the need to canonise and protect the natural environment and rebalance human relationship with nature.
In his latest experiment, Amadou is returning to his research of the Fulani facial tattoos, working on a new series of almost geometrical abstracts interpreting and reshaping these tattoos into new meanings.
Amadou is a recognized artist both domestically and internationally. He has participated in many solo and collective exhibitions over the years, including in Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Dubai, Germany, the Netherlands and the US (San Francisco and New York) and has been featured at major international art exhibitions and fairs such as World Art Dubai, at ARTX Lagos (Nigeria), and AKAA Paris (group 2021 and 2023, and solo 2022).
Portrait
Sanda Amadou was born and raised in 1978 in a Fulani community in Northern Benin. He holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics (University of Ghana, Accra) and received art education through residencies and master’s workshops. He lived and worked in Lagos for several years, but returned to Cotonou, Benin in 2019. From his early childhood he drew, fascinated by the culture and tattoos of the nomadic Fulani, which he still studies and reinterprets.
Amadou has developed a unique semi-abstract style of drawing and painting exploring and depicting the universe based on these impressive body marks and spent the first 6 years of his artistic career (1999-2005) on Fulani tattoos. His first solo exhibition was held in Nyamey (Republic of Niger) in 2002 at the Palais des Congres. From 2006 onwards, he redirected his research on the universe of the nomadic Fulani herdsmen, increasingly connecting it to the outside world, mixing and connecting it in various ways with other worlds of culture, for example in his dance, poetry and divinities studies. His divinities study led him amongst others to the concept of sacredness.
His works seem to obey a rigorous geometry and form complex architectures, which are simultaneously playful and surprisingly fragile. Lines, circles, triangles and quadrilaterals, semi-mathematical figures that are never perfect, connect Fulani symbols of of natural life with ropes at its base. His images result in imaginary forms and grotesque figures that show a ragged vulnerability, ethereal and always in motion. They allow the viewer to glimpse an unreal essence.
In his more recent work Amadou is experimenting with 3D effects adding different textures and sculpting on canvas with plated synthetic hairs in different variations. For his Sacred places series he uses these braids to create sacred forest monasteries as a metaphor for the need to canonise and protect the natural environment and rebalance human relationship with nature.
In his latest experiment, Amadou is returning to his research of the Fulani facial tattoos, working on a new series of almost geometrical abstracts interpreting and reshaping these tattoos into new meanings.
Amadou is a recognized artist both domestically and internationally. He has participated in many solo and collective exhibitions over the years, including in Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Dubai, Germany, the Netherlands and the US (San Francisco and New York) and has been featured at major international art exhibitions and fairs such as World Art Dubai and at ARTX Lagos (Nigeria), and AKAA Paris (groep 2021 and 2023, and solo 2022)
Works
Interested in more works of this artist?
View all available works in our catalog
Credentials
2022
- Garden of Eden, duo solo with Antoine Janot,OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands
- Sacred spaces, AKAA Paris, via OpenArtExchange, Paris, France
2021
- The unexpected universe, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, the Netherlands
2020
- Sol Kjok, Noosphere arts’ Residency, New York, USA
2018
- “Beyond the infnite”, Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
- “Univers inattendus”, John Herman’s Gallery, Cologne, Germany
- “Bergers”, Chale Wote 2018, Accra, Ghana.
2017
- “Nomadic Fulani herdsmen”, Élizabeth Gallery, Dubai, UEA
2016
- “Fulani body marks”, Gallery La Suite, Cotonou, Republic of Benin
2015
- “Beyond the infnite”, Gallery la Suite, Cotonou, Republic of Benin
2014
- “Africa moves on”, Gallery AKA, Nyamey, Niger republic
2009
- “Symbolic universe of Fulani tattoos”, French cultural center, Parakou, Benin republic
2023
- Spirituality, trio exhibition met Kingsley Ogwara en Serge Diama, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, Netherlands (scheduled)
- Visual legacies, via Togo Créatif & Avhec Arts/Goethe institute/Institute Francaise, Lomé, Togo
- DAF Cologne, via OpenArtExchange, Cologne, Germany
2022
- Art The Hague, via OpenArtExchange, Den Haag, Nederland
- DAF Cologne, via OpenArtExchange, Cologne, Germany
- “What will they tell us”, trio with George Adeagbo and Cristelle Yaovi, Kulturforum Süd-Nord, Calavi, Benin
- First Art Fair, via OpenArtExchange, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Lille ArtUp!, via OpenArtExchange, Lille, France
2021
- ST-ART Strasbourg, via OpenArtExchange, Strasbourg, France
- DAF Frankfurt, via OpenArtExchange, Frankfurt, Germany
- AKAA Paris, via OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, the Netherlands
2020
- Roots, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, the Netherlands
- SOBEBRA, Maison Rouge, Cotonou, republic of Benin
2018
- “Retro Africa”, Generation Y, Abuja, Nigeria
2017
- African culture and Design Festivale, Lagos, Nigeria
- “Doto et Sanda”, Institut français de Cotonou, Cotonou, République du Bénin.
2016
- Art X Lagos, Lagos state, Nigeria
2015
- World Art Dubai, Dubaï, EAU
2012
- Promo Art Jeunese Place des Martyrs, Cotonou, republic of Benin
2023
- Togo Créatif/Avhec Arts, sponsored by Goethe Instut/Institute Francaise, Lomé, Togo
2022
- Bernard Fabry, Aix-en-Provence, France
- OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands
2020
- Kjok, Noosphere arts’ Residency, NYC