Owanto

Owanto is a contemporary artist of Gabonese origin (born December 13, 1953 in Paris).

Owanto grew up in Gabon, where she spent her formative years, and eventually moved to Europe. The artist uses a multidisciplinary approach in her creative process and works across a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation.

Owanto had the honour of representing the Republic of Gabon at the 53rd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2009, with a solo show in Gabon's first National Pavilion. The artist continues to exhibit internationally today. Her works can be found in private and public collections around the world.

“Owantoʼs focus on the Africa of her childhood has nothing to do with the similar experiences of 19th Century travel writers and explorers, and is at the opposite end of the aesthetic gaze of rational architects and Cubist painters. Hers is a call to the world based on life experiences, and her message is cogent and optimistic. Truth may be found at the origins of civilisation, which is why Africa, the land of her mother, has much to contribute to the construction of a world order - a contribution that is not scientific, economic or technical... but ethical. The ideas and principles which underlie Owantoʼs message are as simple as nature. Her animist convictions, and belief that family unity is a starting point for world unity, are deeply rooted in her Gabonese background. The home, for Owanto, is the best laboratory in which to design and build love, a raw material that is vital for mutual understanding in the world. This laboratory, in which mothers are symbols of unity and courage, is a metaphor for hope that a better world is possible if each of us exerts a positive influence on our immediate environment, our family, our tribe, our society.

Owanto has used pop, conceptual and minimal art in her creation of universal symbols, which remind spectators of where the solutions to our world may lie, and how a society lacking moral strength may begin to heal. Using her sculptures as starting points, Owanto has created a series of icons which she presents in highly technical formats such as light-boxes and traffic signs - media previously explored by Maurizio Cattelan, Rogelio López Cuenca, Gabriel Acuña and Michael Pinsky. Owantoʼs discourse focuses on images of a family group and a child playing, which suggest a happier world to come. The pieces have a double intention: to alert us to solutions to our global predicament, and to suggest a change in governing attitudes and rules. The light-boxes, like torches and lighthouses, illuminate a future characterised by tolerance, unity and hope.”

Owanto, The Lighthouse of Memory, Go Nogé Mènè. Christian Maretti Editore. 2009. ISBN 88-89965-72-X. 

Sherman, Louise (2005). Visual Poetry. Tecnograf S.A. 

Sherman, Louise (2002). Owanto. Polígrafa Ediciones. ISBN 978-84-343-0934-0.