Kukoff
Kukoff (b. 1979) is a Togolese artist who spent his formative years studying philosophy and architecture. The artist describes his work as “a swing that travels restlessly between the figure and pure abstraction where all expression is bare and raw”. This ‘raw-ness’ is reflected in his choice of materials, incorporating and enveloping sinuous plant fibres into the thick, impasto texture of his works. Meanwhile Kukoff expresses this ‘bare-ness’ through the absence of features – his figures are always ‘faceless’. In the absence of eyes, nose or mouth, the viewer is invited to look beyond the surface and explore the deeper, essential quality of his subjects, which evoke universal archetypes and primitive forms. His painting process can be seen as an inquiry on being and existentialism; an attempt to look beyond the veil and grasp something fundamental that inhabits and animates everything. “Our lives are already lived, therefore ordinary. What titillates me, questions me, disturbs me, is the unspeakable; what escapes; the elusive: the One, the Being who connects everything, and who can therefore alone, reconcile us to everything” he explains. In his painting Kukoff captures a moment of awakening; of fully embodying the self. In The Selfie the artist examines the conditions through which one might achieve self awareness; how to recognise oneself as a free agent determining their own development through acts of the will, and thus more capable of understanding the other. Since 2000, Kukoff has been included in exhibitions and competitions worldwide, including all of West Africa and Europe (France, Belgium, Italy), and recently in the UK.
Kukoff (b. 1979) is a Togolese artist who spent his formative years studying philosophy and architecture. The artist describes his work as “a swing that travels restlessly between the figure and pure abstraction where all expression is bare and raw”. This ‘raw-ness’ is reflected in his choice of materials, incorporating and enveloping sinuous plant fibres into the thick, impasto texture of his works. Meanwhile Kukoff expresses this ‘bare-ness’ through the absence of features – his figures are always ‘faceless’. In the absence of eyes, nose or mouth, the viewer is invited to look beyond the surface and explore the deeper, essential quality of his subjects, which evoke universal archetypes and primitive forms. His painting process can be seen as an inquiry on being and existentialism; an attempt to look beyond the veil and grasp something fundamental that inhabits and animates everything. “Our lives are already lived, therefore ordinary. What titillates me, questions me, disturbs me, is the unspeakable; what escapes; the elusive: the One, the Being who connects everything, and who can therefore alone, reconcile us to everything” he explains. In his painting Kukoff captures a moment of awakening; of fully embodying the self. In The Selfie the artist examines the conditions through which one might achieve self awareness; how to recognise oneself as a free agent determining their own development through acts of the will, and thus more capable of understanding the other. Since 2000, Kukoff has been included in exhibitions and competitions worldwide, including all of West Africa and Europe (France, Belgium, Italy), and recently in the UK.
