Julien Sinzogan — From Our Store

Julien Sinzogan studied architecture in Paris at the Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics, before turning to painting professionally. His use of pen-and-ink on paper displays the astonishing, technical sophistication of a master draughtsman. His work is as much about the transmigration of the African ‘soul’ and the persistence of dreams, visions, ideas and unique cultural identities, across the Atlantic to the New World, as it is about the return of the spirits of former slaves, to the African shores from which they were seized.

Sinzogan first showed with October Gallery in the group show Rendering Visible: Contemporary Art from Benin in 2000. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Africa, including a specially commissioned large-scale painting for the atrium of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, during the exhibition, Uncomfortable Truths, in 2007. Sinzogan’s work has been acquired by several important collections, including the Newark Museum, Newark, USA; the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, USA; the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Zeitz Collection of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa; and Scheryn Art Collection, Cape Town, South Africa.