By John Owoo
(In Accra – Ghana)
Franco-Belgian artist Tiffanie Delune engages her audience with the magic of storytelling, which inevitably spark conversations and invoke emotions.
However, a close encounter reveals an intimacy, which she brings about through a rather deft combination of the ordinary and complex. Indeed, her brilliant colors, sheltered lines, intelligent stringing and sizeable scale gestures encompass her new body of work, which is currently on show at Gallery 1957 in Accra.
Curated by Rita Ouédraogo, her paintings, which abound with diverse colours and their ochres, capture diverse issues – love, anger, relative / absolute, fire, water and the corporeal among others that effectively transmit varied messages that emanate from her colorful canvasses.
Employing some form of narratives and abstraction, Delune is lucidly attesting to her sensibilities through feminine forms, circles, mazes, grids, lines and geometric shapes among others, which she effectively links to transcendent and distorted forms.
Nominated for the 2022 Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, her work equally radiates a soothing balance despite their complexity while analyzing imagined realities. Undeniably, a close encounter with her work eventually reveals the peace, harmony and calmness they convey.
In a disputed world, which is obviously inundated with challenges, she emphasizes on an unfiltered narrative in all its depth and authenticity. By letting go of any inhibitions in the choice of materials, she longs for textures, meanings and a sense of memory – from acrylic, pastels and papers to glitter and threads.
Largely a self-taught artist, Delune has fully immersed herself into her practice with daily rituals and creative challenges. Her work has since been exhibited in London, (UK) Paris (France), Lausanne (Switzerland), Lagos (Nigeria), New York and Los Angeles (USA).
She has been featured on Forbes, BBC Radio London, Contemporary And, The Financial Times and Cultured Magazine – and is held in the permanent collections of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art (Geneva – Switzerland), New York Presbyterian Hospital for Women and Newborns (New York – USA) and The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College (Cambridge – United Kingdom).
Titled “There’s Gold on the Palm of my Hands”, the exhibition ends on Wednesday May 3, 2023.
