Kareoba, Baron perché :
Kareoba is a painter, sculptor and carver. A happy immigrant who grew up in the steel mills of the East.
His favorite theme is the anatomy of things and the way bodies react to breaths, echoes and burns, then the intimate deformations that result.
His method is reminiscent of the effects of enzymes on substrates, where every physical or chemical interaction modifies matter. He writes sensitive cartographic.
Rhizome:
He claims to be inspired by Deleuze's concept of rhizome to develop a network of connections, where each element can link to another, without hierarchy nor center.
“The rhizome inspires me by its non-linear nature, allowing my representations to be a network of thoughts and forms where each work feeds off the other.”
Feeling the living:
Kareoba himself is fascinated by the power of his relationship with his country land, Casamance (Sénégal).
His most recent series of ten paintings, “BLU”, reflects many of the realities that tumble there: strength and serenity, reconciliation, tension and light.
Casamance has its own mythical mask figures, notably the Kumpo.
Schematically, it symbolizes the untameable force of nature and the link between the visible and the invisible.
His illness, cancer, led him to observe these mask dances with particular acuity.
Beyond the beauty, he reads that death here is only the other side of the visible, part of the beauty of nature's cycle, not an end.
Plasticity-wellspring:
Perception is never merely in the present, it has its roots in the past.
Observing his gestures as he works on sculptures, carvings and paintings, although always stubbornly on wood, I suppose he's whispering in my ear about transformation and decay, about memory, about beauty in imperfection.
“Wood because it absorbs blows and cuddles?
Did he know that human epidermis and wood are similar in their ability to record time and accidents?
I think it was rather intuitively that this artist realized the depth of the connection between his work and biological concepts.
bite-indelible - sharp :
I know he's fascinated by Zhang Huan's work and, perhaps not coincidentally, their approaches intertwine:
Just as ZH seeks transcendence through extreme physical performance, our artist seems to explore a similar form of endurance through his meticulous woodworking.
His “SKIN” series of engravings is the result of this visceral, meticulous, brutal and obsessive work.
The search for mental silence in his work evokes Zhang's meditative approach, a way of momentarily transcending his physical challenges.
The brutality and finesse of the final result echo ZH's paradoxical work, which marries self-inflicted pain with a Buddhist quest for peace and enlightenment.
Art and science are two wings of the same bird of the imagination:
This is the work of a survivor whose vision is distorted by proximity to the harsh reality woven by the threads of survival.
His skin is rough and tender, like what he seeks and tells in his wooden mirrors.
His figures and forms tell of his mastery of the art of poetic warfare.
Jca. physician, immunologist researcher collector
>recent exhibitions :
2022 Regards sur cours - Gorée (Sénegal) at the House of the American Consul Strickland
Wood sculpture and painting exhibition: contretemps
2023 Partcours 2023 - at Hotels Pullman Dakar Teranga
Sculpture and painting exhibition: fil d'or
2023 Métavers (virtual digital universe) :
Virtual exhibition and vernissage in a metavers universe and in partnership with the NFT KUCIBOK platform.
Digital illustrations and sculptures: Deglu and Wolof culture
2023 French Alliance of Ziguinchor Casamance: Xippil xol, springs of the Wolof language
2024 - 2023 Biennale Dakar 2024 at Maison Eiffage
Exhibition of engravings and paintings = sensitive cartographics
