Resumé - Magnin-A

Seyni Awa Camara
Born c. 1945, Bignona, Senegal
Lives and works in Bignona, Senegal
Seni Awa Camara’s outlook on life is based on revealed truths, on timeless stories, on the world of human beings and the objects that surround them,
and on her status as a Ouolof woman with an obligation to unite past and present. She was raised by her mother, who was also a potter, and who
taught her sculpture when she was still a child. She had two twin brothers, and all three retreated into the forests of Casamançe to obey a mysterious
and divine initiation. “We were sheltered by God’s spirits, who taught us to work with clay.” Camara models clay and gives shape to stories, events,
and feelings that have been dreamt, revealed, or created from fantasy. She has gathered a substantial number of her sculptures in her home which
could be described as a “theater without a stage,” full of objects and human figures placed according to size—ranging from examples less than twelve
inches high to those which tower at eight feet. For Camara, her figures represent the world as she sees it, with people that are, good, bad, beautiful, or
ugly. All these creatures are modeled in the yard in front of her house, and fired in an open-hearth kiln.
She explains the distorted faces of her creations as a response to our indifference to our ancestors. Or when forty small monsters are clinging to a
pregnant mother, it’s because we’re all fleeing from something! Before unveiling her “secrets,” she locks herself in with her talisman (an ox-horn) and
everything becomes possible. Regarding art, she answers: “I am thinking, I have an idea, I am working.”
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011
Seni Awa Camara entre les éléments, Galeria Kalao, Bilbao, Spain
2010
El Vientre de la Tierra, Galeria Kalao, Bilbao, Spain
2009
Seni Camara & Ndoye Douts, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris, France
2008
Seyni Awa Camara- Terracotas, Galeria Kalao, Bilbao, Spain
2007
Seyni Camara, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris, France
2004
Séni Camara, De Crescenzo & Viesti, Rome, Italy
1990
Seni Awa Camara, Gallery 39, Dakar, Senegal
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
Galeristes, Carreau du temple, Paris, France
2012
Figure Libre, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris
2011
Chic Art Fair, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris
2009/2010
Africa? Una nuova storia, Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy
2007/2008
Why Africa?, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy
2006/2007
100% Africa, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
2005
Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, France
2005
African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, USA
2001
MAGNIN-A 107 bd Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris
T. +33 1 43 38 13 00 / + 33 9 51 46 15 - [email protected] - www.magnin-a.com
Rocca di Umbertide, Contemporary Art Center, Italy
2001
Venice Biennale, 49th International Art Exhibition, Venise, Italy
2000
Il Ritorno Dei Maghi, Orvieto, Italy
1992-1991
Africa Hoy
Contemporary Art Cultural Center, Mexico
Groninger Museum, Netherland
The Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canary, Spain
1991
Senegal
Otto-Ritcher-Halle
Galerie des Institutd Für Auslandsbeziehungen
Landesmuseum, Oldenburger Kunstverein
1989
Magiciens de la Terre, Georges Pompidou Center, La Grande Halles de la Villette.
Paris, France
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2011
Seyni AwaCamara entre les éléments, Book + DVD - Galeria Kalao, Spain
2007
Why Africa?, Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
2006
100% Africa, Exhibition catalogue, Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum
2005
Arts of Africa: The Contemporary Collection of Jean Pigozzi, Exhibition catalogue, Published by Skira Edition & Grimaldi Forum Monaco
2005
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell
2001
Tribal Soul, Metropolitan Body, Contemporary African Art, Edited by : L'Artière, Bilingual text Italian and English, p.66-69
2001
Regine of Africa, Seni Camara by Enrico Mascelloni E Sarenco, Exhibition catalogue, Bilingual text Italian English, p.31-58
1996
Contemporary Art of Africa, Seni Awa Camara p.54-57, text in English by Louise Bourgeois, Edited by Andre Magnin & Jacques Soulillou, Publisher
Harry N. Abraams, New-York
1994
Solitude d'Argile, Légende autour d'une vie, Seni-Awa Camara’s sculptures, Book, texts in French by Michèle Odeye-Finzi, 60 pages, Edition
L'Harmattan
1991
Africa Hoy, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Exhibition catalogue, bilingual text Spanish & English. Seni-Awa Camara, p.67 -71, Las palmas, Gran
Canaria
1989
Magiciens de la Terre, Exhibition catalogue, text in French, Georges Pompidou Center, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France
MAGNIN-A 107 bd Richard Lenoir 75011 Paris
T. +33 1 43 38 13 00 / + 33 9 51 46 15 - [email protected] - www.magnin-a.com