"Ackah's multi-layered painting is a journey through continents and times: With his mask motifs, he spans an arc from his African origins to the reception of Africa by Picasso and Parisian modernism, to Jean-Michel Basquiat and the New York graffiti scene of the 1980s".
Lisa Zeitz, Weltkunst, 2023
Yannick Ackah (Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, 1992) is one of the most sought-after contemporary artists and the most promising of the new generation of French-speaking African artists. His powerful works, which blend references to African culture and Western art history, are a testament to Ackah's individual perspective.
Ackah's compositions are inspired by African sculpture and masks. The stylistic reference to Picasso and his work is deliberate, as Picasso's source of inspiration also goes back to African culture. Ackah himself describes his relationship with the mask as a mystery:
"I see in African sculpture a beauty, a challenge, a whole history, a great mystery that I try to solve through my work with lines, brushstrokes and also with colour."
Yannick Ackah, 2024
Various materials such as paper, newspaper and magazine articles or fabric, which he assembles in a collage-like manner in his works, create the typical surface structure, using the motif of the mask as the central pictorial element. They contribute to the three-dimensionality and depth of his works, adding a dimension of everyday and popular culture that the artist playfully combines with traditional motifs.
With his works, the artist offers a contemporary reception in the visual arts that addresses the current restitution debate on ethnological masks. At the same time, it is a young generation's view of Africa. Ackah's own identity and the society in which he lives also play an undeniable role, and his works address socio-political issues such as racism, colonialism and cultural appropriation.
Yannick Ackah graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) in 2020. Since then, he has exhibited internationally and his works can be found in prestigious public and private collections in France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the USA, Japan, China and South Korea. His solo exhibitions at the Melbye-Konan Gallery were immediately sold out. In 2021, his works were selected for an exhibition at the Institut Français (Hamburg). In 2022, he was selected for the exhibition Aufatmen in the Barlach Halle K of the Landesverband Hamburger Galerien e.V., sponsored by the cultural authorities of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In 2024 he was selected for the exhibition 'Persona', curated by the renowned art collector Harald Falckenberg, and for the exhibition 'Mouvement' in cooperation with the French Consulate in Hamburg.