Galerie Cécile Fakhoury is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Ouattara Watts in Abidjan, from April 9 to June 6, 2026, marking the first time a body of works on paper created in Côte d’Ivoire is brought together.
Over the course of a career spanning more than forty years, Ouattara Watts has developed his practice across a wide range of media and formats—from his early works on tarpaulins to monumental compositions made of assembled canvases—always embracing a freedom of exploration through materials such as wood, textiles, jute, and found or gifted objects.
Works on paper, which Ouattara Watts has explored since the beginning of his career, offer both a striking and captivating perspective on the worlds he has conveyed—first rendered in pastels, then in gouache and watercolor. For an artist who has consistently interpreted the world through color, music, and symbols, transcending notions of time and place, paper has always provided a unique space of freedom, with its own distinct qualities: a more intimate scale, more agile and sensitive, yet also more demanding and risk-laden. Watercolor, in particular, allows no revisions, giving it a direct and immediate character.
At every stage of his journey, Watts has returned to paper—a more personal medium, akin to a journal for a painter who narrates without speaking, reveals without disclosing, and traces back through time and systems of writing to render them universal.
Within these hand- and eye-scaled formats, the compositions focus on figures and allegories that emerge and function as keys to interpreting the poetic and mysterious world the artist tirelessly constructs.
This exhibition marks Ouattara Watts’s return to the Ivorian art scene since 2018 and reflects a renewed momentum within a singular career that intersects artistic scenes and geographies.
The exhibition is accompanied by the release of a monograph in both French and English, featuring a previously unseen selection of works on canvas and paper from the 1980s to the present day.
This publication situates Ouattara Watts’s work within an international critical perspective, thanks to contributions from art historians of diverse backgrounds: Mara Hoberman, Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, and Stéphane Vacquier.
Francis Coraboeuf
