Ouattara Watts
La Dama, 1990
Pastel on paper
25-1/2 x 40 inches
Signed on the verso
Ouattara Watts
Initiation, 1986
Oil on canvas
84 x 144 inches
Signed, titled and dated on the verso
Ouattara Watts
Possession, 1990
Pastel on paper
25-1/2 x 40 inches
Signed verso
Born 1957, Abidjan, Ivory Coast Lives and works in New York, US
Education
1984
L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022
Karma Gallery, New York, US
2019
Resonances, Fondation Paul Rebeyrolle, Eymoutiers, France Magazzino d’Arte Contemporaneo, Rome, Italy
2018
Before Looking at This Work, Listen to It, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan, Ivory Coast Get Ready, La Rotonde, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
2016
New Painting, Magazzino, The Armory Show, New York, US
2015
Galerie Boulakia, Paris
2013
Ouattara Watts: The Project Room, FIAF Gallery, New York, US
2012
Vertigo, Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, New York, US
2009
Hess Art Collection: Andy Goldsworthy and Ouattara Watts, International Contemporary Art at Glen Carlou, Paarl, South Africa
2008
Galeria Leyendecker, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain Hess Art Collection, Paar, South Africa
Outlaw, Magazzino, Rome, Italy
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2007
Ouattara Watts: For Lily, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, US
2006
Ouattara Watts: Works on Paper, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, US
2004
The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover
Crossing Currents-The Synergy of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts, Magazzino, Rome, Italy Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
Tracy Williams Gallery, New York, US
Ouattara Watts: Opere Recenti, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Magazzino, Rome, Italy
2002
Leo Koenig, New York
1999
Ouattara: in Roma, Magazzino, Rome, Italy
1998
Ouattara: New Work, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, US
1996
Ouattara: Dark Star, The Kemper Museum, Kansas City, US
1995
Ouattara: New Paintings, Gagosian Gallery, New York, US
1994
Ouattara, University Art Museum, Berkeley, US
1993
Galerie Boulakia, Paris, France
1992
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, US
1990
Galerie Boulakia, Paris, France Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya, Japan Vrej Baghoomian, New York, US
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1989
Marilyn Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, US
Selected group exhibitions
2021
Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, Gwanju Biennale, Gwanju, South Korea
Surface Tension, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
The Queen of Spades...and other stories, Bienvenu Steinberg & Partner, New York, US
2019
Foire internationale d’art contemporain, Paris, France
L’Esprit du large chapitre II, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan, Ivory Coast L’Esprit du large, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Dakar, Senegal
Prête-moi ton rêve, Exposition Panafricaine Itinérante, Casablanca, Morocco
2018
African Metropolis, an Imaginary City, MAXXI, Rome, Italy L’heure rouge, 13th Dakar Biennial, Dakar, Senegal
2017
The White Hunter, curated by Marco Scotini, FM, Milan, Italy Afriques Capitales, Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris, France
2016
11th Dakar Biennial, Dakar, Senegal
2011
Ouattara Watts and Katy Schimert, Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York, US
2010
In Dialogue : Four Generations of Painting, curated by Peter Makebish, Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami, US
2009
HERD THINNER, curated by David Hunt, Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami, US
2006
Intersections: Shifting Identity in Contemporary Art, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, US Realm of the Spirit, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, US
Body of Evidence, National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., US
2003
Black President – The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, US
2002
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994, Contemporary Art Center, New York, US
2001
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Gorney Bravin Lee, New York, US
1997
Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Fukui, Japan Chiba Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
1994
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, US
Un Altre Pais, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Spain La Caixa, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
La Virreina Expositions, Barcelona, Spain
1993
Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1992
Other Drums: Visionary Works, Calvin Morris Gallery, New York, US Haessle, Ouattara, Ray Smith, Navara Gallery, New York, US
1991
Syncretism: The Art of the 20th Century, Alternative Museum, New York, US
Social Sculpture, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, US
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, US
African Explores: New and Renewed Forms in 20th Century Art, University Art Museum, Berkeley, US
1990
It Must Give Pleasure: Erotic Perceptions, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, US
Images of Death in Contemporary Art, Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, US
1988
Summer Exhibition, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, US
1986
Galerie Georges Lavrov, Paris, France
1985
Musée National des Arts Africans et Océaniens, Paris, France
Public Collections
Fondacao Sindika Dokolo, Angola
Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris, France
Fondation Dapper, Paris, France
The Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, New Jersey, US
The Hess Art Collection, South Africa
The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, US The Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York, US
The UC Berkeley Museum of Art and Film Archive, Berkeley, US Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., US
In his works, Ouattara Watts summons imaginary worlds and mystical visions, from ancestral to contemporary, to observe the metaphysical relationship between creatures. Vibrant colors, mysterious figures, and allusions to spiritual rites in the form of equations and cryptic symbols are apparent, and the interrelationship of these elements creates a dimension unique to Watts.
American artist Ouattara Watts (b. 1957, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Africa) lives and works in New York, US. Watts embraced art at an early age and gained an experience in spiritual schooling. He was inspired by the works of Picasso and other artists from the Modern Art movement. At the age of 19, he moved to Paris to pursue art education training at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.
While living in Paris, Watts met Jean-Michel Basquiat at an art opening. It was Basquiat who persuaded him to move to New York to pursue his career. Both artists focused on themes which highlighted African culture, philosophy, and spirituality.
Watts spent the next several years combining elements of his African roots with Western influences. This allowed him to create his own unique artistic voice.
Influenced by West Africa's spirituality and multiculturalism, his large-scale, abstract compositions combine mediums to fuse African and Western aesthetics and explore themes of spirituality, Pan-Africanism, and modernism.
His source material is colorful and varied, from traditional fabrics and paint to cut-out photographs and digital prints. The added layers forge a sense of his multicultural identity and reflect upon an increasingly multicultural society.
Ouattara Watts’ art has played an essential role in African American art history. He has exhibited his work in institutions worldwide.
Ouattara Watts has been exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, the Venice Biennale, and MoMA. His work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, US; Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art, Washington, D.C., US; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, US; Collection Mohammed IV, Morocco; Fondation Dapper, Paris, France; International Contemporary Art at Glen Carlou, Paarl, South Africa; and the UC Berkeley Museum of Art and Film Archive, Berkeley, California, US, among others.
