Kando
Montréal, CanadaBiography
Kando grew up in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. He currently lives and works in Montreal.
He completed his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa (2009) and more recently graduated with a Bachelor in Design de l’environnement at UQAM (2016). In 2020, he received the Best of the Art Fair Toronto Outdoor Award, offered by the Rudolph P. Bratty Family Foundation. He has participated in exhibitions in Canada, the United States, Africa and Europe.
His work stems from humanistic and social research. A desire for freedom and equity drives the artist. His work questions the construction of identity and celebrates diversity. Since he arrived in Quebec in 2009, Kando has been eager to integrate into his new country. While adjusting to a new culture can be a long process, Kando finds himself a stranger in his native land, where he is now told that he is no longer genuinely Congolese. Thus, the artist oscillates between the heritage of his origins and his new experiences in Quebec. According to him, the meeting of these two worlds makes the most extraordinary richness of his work.
About the artwork
Umbrella (2020) et Monama
With his work, Kando questions the role of Black women throughout history. His paintings deploy a range of analyses from historical, feminist and anthropological perspectives.
Inspired by the work of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Umbrella (2020) is a reinterpretation of Christian iconography. In Bouguereau’s work, a woman sits in a hieratic position, wearing a thick drape and is surrounded by several children. Umbrella is also inspired by Michelangelo’s sculpture La Pietà, which consists a woman holding an inert body. Here, Kando’s work instead portraits a Black woman, namely Nina Simone, echoing police brutality and the Black Lives Matter resistance movement.
The artwork Monama highlights African women who have played an essential role in their continent’s economic, social, cultural, and political development.
COME MEET THE ARTIST
CENTRE DE COMMERCE MONDIAL DE MONTRÉAL
(ALLIED)
747 Rue du Square-Victoria
Entrance St Antoine West, Room W160
Residence completed
Photo : Camille Dubuc
Artworks by the artist
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