Interview with Chrice MAYOUMA — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Chrice MAYOUMA is a French contemporary painter born in Brazzaville, Congo in 1985.
Passionate about painting and drawing since his childhood, he is an unconventional and self-taught artist who did not follow a classical academic path.
Having done his artistic education at home, he has always drawn from his daily experiences to work on his creations as a diary.
At the age of 12, he arrived in France after leaving the Congo following the various civil wars that shook the country in the 1990s. The visions of horror of war have deeply marked his artistic approach, he decides to take his brushes to paint in his canvases only what is most positive in Man. Through a gallery of universal, inspiring and committed characters, he integrates the image in its natural part and exalts the freedom of being. He claims an optimistic art marked by a strong humanism.
In a modern art style, he works essentially with assortments of charcoal and oil paint, the splendour of the pigments allowing him to play on the dynamics of colors to better expose in his paintings subjects of peace and understanding of the other. He uses the paper as his main support, thanks to which he captures the depth of the material in order to reveal the beauty of his emotions.
Idealist, he presents each of his plastic works as totems of inspiration allowing each of us to transcend ourselves and reveal the most seductive part of human nature.

How would you describe yourself and your artwork?

I am a French self-taught painter, born in Brazzaville in Congo. I have always been passionate about art since my childhood.

Having carried out my artistic education at home, I continuously drew on my daily experiences and encounters to compose my creations like a private diary.

During my adolescence, I lived the atrocities of the civil wars which touched the Congo in the 90s. Following these events I very quickly wanted to imbue my works with a humanist and positive approach.

This materializes concretely in my art by the adoption of a figurative style, the human having a central place in my creations, accompanied by a message rich in sentimentality. Using a mixture of oil paints and charcoal, I try to communicate serenity in my paintings.

The contrast of colors between the dazzling liveliness of the oil and the darkness of the charcoal allows me to give more depth to my subjects whose objective is to captivate the viewer in a peaceful and almost eternal reflection.

How do you go about beginning a new piece? Do you have an idea already in mind, or do you start working with materials or sketches to find the departure point?

I am very spontaneous in the subjects to be painted, each of my creations is the fruit of my experiences and encounters. Nothing is planned in advance, I paint subjects that touch me, revolt me and encourage me to be better.

the goal being to commune with the spectator in an authentic and almost immortal dialogue. However, in order to structure the composition of my work, I always make a sketch on the final canvas. It should be noted that all my paintings are painted on paper.

I use this medium because it allows me to better capture the depth of the material, in order to more easily expose my emotions of the moment.

When do you think your most prolific time of day or week is?

I like to paint in the evening, far from the noise of the world. This is the moment when I get to be in tune with myself and my ideas.

What is a barrier you as an artist overcame? Is there anything that enabled you to develop your work as an artist in your life?

Initially being a very young artist in a country at war and trying to find inspiration in the midst of chaos was quite a challenge. But more generally what allowed me to develop my artistic work is undoubtedly the fact of having escaped death twice when I was in Brazzaville.

These experiences made me aware of the meaning that we must give to destiny and the responsibility that we regarding a gift or an aptitude that nature has given us.

Did you have an idea of what you wanted to create right from the beginning?

No, like I said I am very spontaneous. I use my encounters as sources of inspiration. I enjoy observing people and trying to paint some inspiring aspects of their life.

What is the meaning or creative inspiration for your work? We're curious what the narrative or story is to what you are producing?

For several years, I have decided to take my brushes to paint in my works what is most positive in Man.

Being able to capture the essence of humanity in each individual and reflect it in a work is the paroxysm of artistic achievement for me. each of my brushstrokes aims to move me forward in this quest. I explore different aspects of the human being to access this Grail.

My work has prompted me to study the role of smile in our lives and the deep desires that lie in us. I am interested in a lot of works by renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci but also in more or less foreign authors from the art world like Joseph CAMPBELL or Abraham MASLOW.