Mariama
Conteh
Born in 1998 in Paris, France
Lives and works in Paris, France
Through painting, Mariama Conteh stages figures drawn from family photographs, personal memories, and images from performance. Her practice explores a sensitive genealogy, intertwining intimate and collective memory.
Languid in a blues song or syncopated in a ragtime waltz, the deep, eclectic notes of musical melodies—played during an official concert or an improvised solo—resonate through Mariama Conteh’s canvases. The world of performance and showbiz underpins the artist’s compositions; she has, in fact, practiced drag herself. Often using her own face or her sister’s as a model, she chooses to portray black women with a certain tenderness, always at work. By heavily diluting ochre and brown pigments with turpentine, the artist achieves a watery effect that allows her to literally “let the paint flow” through the ages. Impressionist scenes blend with those of the cabaret, creating a timeless genre painting, as if Berthe Morisot were to meet Alice Neel today.
— Megan Macnaughton
Artworks
