Barthélémy Toguo

A multidisciplinary artist, Barthélémy Toguo creates paintings, sculptures, woodcarvings, video, and performance art. Often infusing his work with comical gestures or political commentary, Toguo turns to his art to reflect on the meaning and character of a specific place. Taking a particular interest in systems of movement, or “flows,” as he characterizes them, the artist has created series of works that reflect on such processes as the stamping of one's passport, or a crowded runway where no plane is able to take off. Toguo's interest in the movement of people is grounded in a critique of the Western world, highlighting what he sees as its problematic consumption of Third World resources and its simultaneous resistance to absorbing the Third World population. His formal practice reflects an interest in displaying human figures caught in states of transformation or movement, often abstracted or depicted as disembodied elements.

Toguo has had solo exhibitions at major institutions including The Design Museum in London, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Milwaukee's Institute of Visual Art, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 2012 Toguo was included in the Paris Triennial exhibition "Intense Proximité" curated by Okwui Enwezor.