Cash Cow KEVIN-ADEMOLA SANGOSANYA

“All the works are ‘feelings’, visual retranscriptions of the sense of fear or anguish that can sometimes assail me”

Of Franco-Nigerian origin, Kévin-Ademola Sangosanya draws on the spiritual world of Yoruba culture as much as on European folklore (notably Breton) for numerous symbols and figures, as well as sounds, images and materials, to produce a work that is mixed, powerful and vibrant.

Kévin-Ademola Sangosanya invites viewers into his head, his anxieties and his doubts, and constructs a meditative space based on spiritual art and tile repetition. Echoing the words of a friend, Sangosanya evokes the impression of being under the sea when he paints. His works become mental maps, the end point of which is intellectual and emotional reasoning.

ARTIST

Of French and Yoruba origin, Kévin-Ademola Sangosanya was born in Longjumeau (91) in 1996. Even if the environment in which he grew up didn't destine him to become an artist, his mother being a scientist from a working-class background and his father, a Nigerian immigrant and former soldier, he felt a vital need to draw all day long from an early age. His mother encouraged him to take drawing lessons after secondary school, but, as he mainly painted monsters and dinosaurs, he was quickly steered towards a career in science. At 15, he wanted to be a paleontologist and then a geneticist specializing in endangered species. His love for Nigeria, where he had travelled frequently since early childhood to visit his grandparents, led him to focus on endangered gorillas. Thinking that the best way to protect them would be to allow them to live in an environment where they would not be hunted, he decided after his baccalaureate to focus on sustainable development and began studying agronomy engineering.

At 17, he discovered independence and student life. He left the family nest to move closer to Paris, settling in residence in Cergy. He completed a number of internships abroad as part of his studies, including his graduation internship where he spent 8 months in Nigeria, working on the conservation of forest species, reforestation, and the study of medicinal, food and sacred plants, linking the three areas that fascinate him: cultural preservation, the sustenance of populations and spirituality.