Born in 1995 on the island of Guadeloupe, Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux lives and works between Paris and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
At the age of eight, Deloumeaux left his native island for mainland France with his family. This shift in environment sparked a profound transformation in his perception of identity and cultural belonging, prompting him to explore new geographies and histories through his artistic practice.
His frequent travels, particularly in West Africa, offer opportunities to reflect on the notions of home and self. The disorienting experience of navigating unfamiliar yet strangely resonant places, of adapting to new languages and long journeys, creates space for introspection and reinvention. In this in-between state, identity becomes more fluid — free to take shape through different forms and perspectives. For Deloumeaux, the act of creating is thus a means of self-definition on his own terms.
His work also embodies a contemporary creative approach — fluid, experimental, and grounded in exchange. It often emerges from dialogue with his models, who are also artists, friends, painters, photographers, and designers. Through these encounters, painting becomes a site of reconciliation between interiority and the outside world, between singularity and plurality.
His canvases are rich with recurring, symbolic motifs — from patterns inspired by family traditions (such as lace) to imagined reinterpretations of existing environments. Certain sections of his paintings, dense with material and textured with streaks, add depth to their realism while simultaneously enhancing their dreamlike, symbolic dimension.
Deloumeaux’s work also engages in a silent dialogue with art history. His scenes convey the immediacy of contemporary photography while echoing the timelessness of classical painting. Skies, for instance, often appear not just as backgrounds but as central, almost sentient elements of the composition. Elsewhere, painting escapes the canvas to merge with objects, further asserting its desire to be part of the world.
Each of his works can be seen as a territory in its own right — a visual landscape where references from multiple cultures, geographies, and time periods converge in a fluid, contemporary dance. Drawing on Édouard Glissant’s concept of the creolization of knowledge, which deeply resonates with him, Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux invites viewers to embrace the encounter, to be carried by the serendipity of crossed paths and the fertile mingling of imaginaries.
Selected recent exhibition : Au-delà du jardin, il y a la mer, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, 2024) ; Ellad Lincy Deloumeaux, Paris + by Art Basel (Paris, 2023) ; Souvenirs Entrelacés, Galerie Perrotin (Dubai, 2023) ; D’un songe à l’autre, La Station culturelle (Martinique, 2022) ; Exposition personnelle, Saint Laurent Rive Droite, (Paris & Los Angeles, 2022) ; Mody : celui qui vient des deux mondes, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Paris, 2022) ; Un pied sur terre, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Paris, 2021) ; Un est multiple, Galerie Cécile Fakhoury (Abidjan, 2020) ; When we see us : A century of Black figuration, Kunstmuseum Basel (Bâle, 2024) ; Where Dreams are Born and Peace Restored, BWO (Douala, 2024)