MOSES SALIHOU ESSENCE DE LA VIE
September 7th – September 21st
Moses Salihou’s second exhibition at the gallery, Essence De La Vie, will be on view from September 7th through September 21st. There will be an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, September 7th from 1-3PM. RSVP here.
Salihou will participate in a tour of his exhibition led by Joséphine Denis, the Director of Curatorial Initiatives at Black Artists’ Networks In Dialogue (BAND) on Saturday, September 14th at 1PM. The talk, From Cameroon to Toronto and Back, will focus on Salihou’s origins in Cameroon, the country he emigrated from over a decade ago, and how it has infuenced his practice while living in Toronto. Please RSVP for the tour and talk here.
Essence De La Vie marks a noticeable shift in Moses Salihou’s approach to his portraits. During a recent trip to Cameroon to visit family, Salihou was struck by the intense feelings he experienced while reconnecting with relatives. When he returned to his Toronto studio, he became interested in body language and interpersonal relationships, widening his lens and encompassing multiple fgures within a single composition. In one painting, a child hangs onto their father, in another, a woman rests her head on her partners’. These small gestures of connectivity were inspired by specifc relationships he witnessed back home. Even in individual portraits, Salihou provides small but meaningful clues about the sitter’s personality and sense of style.
Accompanying the evocative portraits are paintings of bouquets. Salihou was only introduced to the concept of freshly cut fowers when he moved to Canada, and they have been a recurring motif for him over the last few years. They are treated in a similar manner to his portraits, with fuid, gestural brushstrokes leaving the composition in perpetual motion. The vases beneath the bouquets are barely perceptible, the fowers refusing to be anchored down. One of the aptly titled still lifes, Juste une Sourire, or ‘just a smile,’ reminds us that the ephemeral nature of fowers does not hinder their beauty, but rather heightens their sweetness by encouraging us to appreciate them in the moment.
Pictured here:
Moses Salihou, PortraitofaMan , 2024 oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.
$ 2,800.00
3,500.00
$ 6,800.00
$ 3,200.00
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Moses Salihou is a Cameroonian artist based in Toronto. He explores the ideas of belonging and existence by creating work that blends elements of portraiture and abstraction. Salihou's thick application of paint creates a textural intensity that mirrors our own internal complexities. Central to Salihou’s work is his belief that human beings are composites of various identities, experiences, beliefs, and emotions. Salihou’s gestural application leaves the defning features on the faces of his portraits only loosely representational. The portraits become composites of various people rather than fxed and stable identities, allowing the observer to be a participant rather than just a viewer. These rich surface efects provide Salihou’s work with a sense of dynamism that captures the fuidity and movement he ascribes to the concepts of identity and personhood.
Salihou has exhibited across the United States and Canada. His work is also in private collections globally, including Europe, New Zealand, Africa, Asia, Canada, and the US.