Untitled - 2006

96 x 25 x 20 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 1996

32 x 23 x 18 cm
Terracotta / Terre cuite

Untitled - 1996

13 x 15 x 12 cm
Terracotta / Terre cuite

Untitled - 1996

33 x 20 x 11 cm
Terracotta / Terre cuite

Untitled - n.d.

28 x 17 x 10 cm
Terracotta / Terre cuite

Untitled - 2006

106 x 36,6 x 25,8 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2006

136,5 x 31,3 x 37 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 1996

141 x 35 x 33 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2000

106 x 36 x 28 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 1999

145 x 33 x 23 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2006

110 x 36.5 x 28 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2006

136,5 x 37,5 x 27,5 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 1996

75 x 22 x 30 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 1988

81 x 27.3 x 22.5 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2006

112.2 x 34 x 27.2 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2000

60 x 20 x 24 cm
Terracotta

Untitled - 2000

71 x 31 x 29.5 cm
Terracotta

Untitled (detail) - 2006

110 x 36.5 x 28 cm
Terracotta

Untitled (detail) - 2000

106 x 36 x 28 cm
Terracotta

Untitled (detail) - 1999

145 x 33 x 23 cm
Terracotta

Untitled (detail) - 2006

108 x 36 x 29 cm cm
Terracotta

Seyni Awa Camara

Born c. 1945, Bignona, Senegal

Lives and works in Bignona, Senegal

Seyni Awa Camara’s outlook on life is based on revealed truths, on timeless stories, on the world of human beings and the objects that surround them, and on her status as a Wolof woman with an obligation to unite past and present. She was raised by her mother, who was also a potter, and who taught her sculpture when she was still a child. She had two twin brothers, and all three retreated into the forests of Casamançe to obey a mysterious and divine initiation. “We were sheltered by God’s spirits, who taught us to work with clay.” Camara models clay and gives shape to stories, events, and feelings that have been dreamt, revealed, or created from fantasy. She has gathered a substantial number of her sculptures in her home which could be described as a “theater without a stage,” full of objects and human figures placed according to size—ranging from examples less than twelve inches high to those which tower at eight feet. For Camara, her figures represent the world as she sees it, with people that are, good, bad, beautiful, or ugly. All these creatures are modeled in the yard in front of her house, and fired in an open-hearth kiln.

She explains the distorted faces of her creations as a response to our indifference to our ancestors. Or when forty small monsters are clinging to a pregnant mother, it’s because we’re all fleeing from something! Before unveiling her “secrets,” she locks herself in with her talisman (an ox-horn) and everything becomes possible. Regarding art, she answers: “I am thinking, I have an idea, I am working.”

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011

Seyni Awa Camara entre les éléments

Galeria Kalao, Bilbao, Spain

2010

El Vientre de la Tierra

Galeria Kalao

Bilbao, Spain

2009

Seni Camara & Ndoye Douts

Galerie Nathalie Fiks

Paris, France

2008

Seyni Awa Camara- Terracotas

Galeria Kalao

Bilbao, Spain

2007

Seyni Camara

Galerie Nathalie Fiks

Paris - France

2004

Séni Camara

De Crescenzo & Viesti

Rome - Italy

1990

Seni Awa Camara

Gallery 39

Dakar, Senegal.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020

Alpha Crucis, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (01.22 to 09.30 2020)

2019 Expressions d'Afrique Inside Jean Pigozzi's Collection

Galerie Gmurzynska - Zurich

23 Oct 2019 – 31 Jan 2020

2017

Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier. Les Initiés, un choix d’œuvres (1989 – 2009) dans la collection d’art africain contemporain de Jean Pigozzi. Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (04/26/17 to 09/04/17)

2012

Figure Libre, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris

2011

Chic Art Fair, Galerie Nathalie Fiks, Paris

2009/2010

Africa? Una nuova storia

Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, Italy

2007/2008

Why Africa?

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli

Turin, Italy

2006/2007

100% Africa

Guggenheim Museum

Bilbao, Spain

2005

Arts of Africa

Grimaldi Forum

Monaco - France

2005

African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Museum of Fine Art Houston

Houston - USA

2001

Rocca di Umbertide

Contemporary Art Center.

Italy

2001

Venice Biennale

49th International Art Exhibition

Venise - Italy.

2000

Il Ritorno Dei Maghi

Orvieto, Italy.

1992-1991

Africa Hoy

Contemporary Art Cultural Center, Mexico.

Groninger Museum, Netherland.

The Atlantic Center of Modern Art, Las Palmas de Gran Canary, Spain.

1991

Senegal

Otto-Ritcher-Halle.

Galerie des Institutd Für Auslandsbeziehungen.

Landesmuseum, Oldenburger Kunstverein.

1989

Magiciens de la Terre

Georges Pompidou Center.

La Grande Halles de la Villette.

Paris, France.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2021

Ex Africa - Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac - Sous la direction de Philippe Dagen - Gallimard, Paris

2017

Les Initiés, un choix d’œuvres (1989 – 2009) dans la collection d’art africain contemporain de Jean Pigozzi. Editions Dilecta, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France. Exhibition catalogue.

2011

Seyni AwaCamara entre les éléments

Book + DVD - Galeria Kalao, Spain

2007

Why Africa?

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Electa & Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli.

2006

100% Africa

Exhibition catalogue. Published by TF Editores & FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

2005

Arts of Africa: The Contemporary Collection of Jean Pigozzi

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Skira Edition & Grimaldi Forum Monaco.

2005

African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2001

Tribal Soul, Metropolitan Body.

Contemporary African Art

Edited by : L'Artière. Bilingual text Italian and English p.66-69.

2001

Regine of Africa. Seni Camara by Enrico Mascelloni E Sarenco.

Exhibition catalogue. Bilingual text Italian English. P.31-58.

1996

Contemporary Art of Africa.

Seni Awa Camara p.54-57, text in English by Louise Bourgeois.

Edited by Andre Magnin & Jacques Soulillou.

Publisher Harry N. Abraams, New-York.

1994

Solitude d'Argile. Légende autour d'une vie.

Seni-Awa Camara’s sculptures.

Book, texts in French by Michèle Odeye-Finzi, 60 pages.

Edition : L'Harmattan.

1991

Africa Hoy. Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno.

Exhibition catalogue, bilingual text Spanish & English. Seni-Awa Camara, p.67 -71.

Las palmas, Gran Canaria.

1989

Magiciens de la Terre.

Exhibition catalogue, text in French.

Georges Pompidou Center, Grande Halle de la Villette. Paris, France.