About me
Biography
Ayeva MEDJEVA was born on August 7, 1960 in Sokodé, Togo.
Ayeva Médjeva received most of her training in the studio of Samir Zarour, at the School of Fine Arts in Abidjan.
His first creations reveal reality beneath the specter of the unreal.
In these paintings, he establishes codes like secret messages, which make them even more mysterious.
As the years go by, his own artistic impulses take over. From there, he was able to find his way with more personal and lively productions. His painter's gaze focuses on the clashes and misfortunes of the African continent, and on the pain of the men who live there.
Ayeva MEDJEVA has won several local awards. He participates in numerous workshops and also exhibits his works in Ivory Coast and the sub-region.
AYEVA MEDJEVA
<< Le ressourcement comme pouvoir >>
It is not useful to know the journey of Ayeva Medjeva, to follow him, to understand that he is a painter of the new generation of African artists, the one who has been searching for his own identity for around fifteen years, far from the alienating paths of academicism. His writing, focused on a quest that is more collective than individual, is nourished by the thought of Vohou-Vohou with its wanderings and other variations around a central notion of matter.
The artist, trained at the Abidjan School of Fine Arts in the 1980s, that is to say at those times when Vohou-Vohou was winning, offers a writing that is complex because it is very mobile. Everything shows that he is still fighting the fight, the good fight to inscribe, in each of his works, a style: “His” style.
The artist, trained at the Abidjan School of Fine Arts in the 1980s, that is to say at those times when Vohou-Vohou was winning, offers a writing that is complex because it is very mobile. Everything shows that he is still fighting the fight, the good fight to inscribe, in each of his works, a style: “His” style.
Many artists of Ayeva's generation were unfortunately unable to do so! Escaping the logic of the post-Vohou avant-garde. Their paintings were quickly exhausted because they did not know how to seek this personal path which distances their predecessors and allows them to gain in otherness. Ayéva understood this danger very early on; this is why he has been driven, for a long time, by the desire to give always new and specific content to his art, a soul that would turn the page. If he creates culminating poles of attraction on his surfaces, introduces collages (of fabric) which act plastically as centers of interest, it remains no less true that he rejects the tapa or refuses to be prisoner of the ocher dear to the Vohou, or, again opts for creations often off-center.
His palette retains this strength torn from the land of his ancestors. Red and black are restored to their evocative and symbolic power. The presence, in the flow of colored masses, of evanescent characters, that is to say both present and absent on the canvas, is interpreted as a desire for rebirth. The artist encounters the invisible, the immanent forces, and, following his characters, wants to transit from one existence to another and be reborn to the mysteries of creation. He also wants, in a conquering attitude, to take the scepter. All the play of animal figures placed in most of his works is not gratuitous: lizard, turtle, chameleon, etc., are indeed attributes of Power, a central theme in the art of this painter.
Ayeva, as we have said, is a very special wanderer. His steps lead him straight to the springs, where the Senghorian Manatees go to drink.
When we take a close look at his creations, we realize that, for him, resourcing and power are twin data: they are symbolic doubles. To reclaim one's soul as the Vohou did is to take power, it is to command beings (these evanescent characters) and things. It's a dialogue with yourself. By integrating fabric, a sign of humanization, into his paintings and by surrounding some of his characters with a lively line, thus making them more human, the artist participates in this dialogue with a view to rearmament.
The series of titles proposed by the artist is a whole coat of arms: “Force”, “Power”, “Two”, “Disintegration”, “Crossing”, “Positive Negative”, etc. There is no need to comment on them.
Ayeva Medjeva has in her hand a compressed energy which places her on the list of visual artists from Côte d'Ivoire who, through hard work, will make tomorrow. Its presence in the front ranks of the winners of painting competitions (“Total”, “City of Abidjan”, “Tremplin SIFCOM”) and in international exchanges is a sign.
Henri N'KOUMO
Critique d’art
1983-1988 | Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts (Abidjan RCI) Obtaining the (DNBA) |
1988-1990 | Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts (Abidjan RCI) Obtaining the (DSBA) |
2022 | Exhibition “Double Je” Bar restaurant l’Adresse” |
2022 | Exhibition of colonial houses “Palais de Lomé” |
2021 | Collective exhibition “ART ALLIAE 51” Lagos Museum |
2020 | International workshop (DUNONO) |
2019 | Facilitator Harmattan Workhop (Delta State) Nigeria |
2018 | Dak'Art OFF Biennial |
2017 | Harmattan Workshop NIGERIA |
2016 | Dak'Art OFF Biennial |
2015 | Facilitator Harmattan Workshop NIGERIA |
2014 | Harmattan Workshop NIGERIA |
2014 | Curator of the Pagne en fete exhibition of the Ministry of Commerce of Togo |
2013 | International Art EXPO Lagos NIGERIA |
2013 | Curator of the ETI twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition |
2012 | International Art EXPO Lagos NIGERIA |
2012 | Creative residency at villa KARO Benin |
2012 | Individual exhibition at the ODAYE cultural center |
1988 | Winner of the grand prize painting competition TOTAL COTE D’IVOIRE |
1989 | Winner of the grand prix painting competition in the city of Abidjan |
1989 | Winner of the TOTAL grand prize painting competition, 1st prize |
1991 | Winner of AIR AFRIQUE display competition ranked 1st prize |
1992 | Competition winner and finalist create the RFI “DECOUVERTE 93” poster |
Belgium | Benin | Burkina Faso |
Cape Verde | Cameroon | Ivory Coast |
United State | France | Ghana |
Mali | Nigeria | Senegal |
Visual arts instructor since 1994 to 2002 Abidjan (RCI) |
Visual arts instructor at EAMOD AYANICK 2006-2020 Lomé Togo |
Visual arts instructor at EAMOD 2021 to date Lomé Togo |
Visual arts instructor at ISBA 2022 Lomé Togo |
Art drawing: Sanguine – Black stone – Sepia – Indian ink |
Chromatology: the art of color |
Pastel-watercolor |
Oil paint and acrylic paint |
Part-time sculptures |
