ART ANTWERP 2026

For its first participation at Art Antwerp, Galerie PERSON proposes a dialogue between three artists: Olga Yaméogo (Burkina Faso / France), Fally Sène Sow (Senegal), and Addis Gezehagn (Ethiopia), whose practices explore the complex relationships between identity, memory, and the spaces we inhabit. Through portraiture, still life, and urban landscape painting, they reflect on the ways in which personal and collective histories shape our sense of belonging. Whether addressing the experience of migration, the cultural significance of food, or the transformation of urban environments, each artist offers a distinctive perspective on contemporary African realities, revealing the profound connections between people, places, and cultural heritage.

Olga Yaméogo's canvases navigate the intimate geography of exile. Working from her own circle of family and friends, she dissolves individual silhouettes into shifting, luminous forms, figures neither lost nor fixed, but perpetually becoming. Rooted in Édouard Glissant's philosophy of creolisation, her ochres and deep blues stage a dialogue between her Burkinabé heritage and her life in Toulouse, proposing migration not as rupture but as a site of cultural invention.

Fally Sène Sow's work confronts one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the capacity of the African continent to feed its people from its own extraordinary abundance. Deconstructing the timeless genre of the still life, he elevates the symbolic weight of food into an act of both celebration and political inquiry. Through painting, he maps the full breadth of Senegal's food landscape, from subsistence farming and livestock to the teeming marine resources of its coastline. In the face of systemic failures to harness Africa's agricultural potential, Fally Sène Sow asserts the role of the artist as a necessary voice: honouring local gastronomy and the beauty of everyday produce while demanding that questions of food sovereignty, equity, and environmental responsibility be heard.

Finally, Addis Gezehagn turns his attention to the ever-changing urban landscape of Addis Ababa, exploring the relationship between architecture, memory, and collective identity. His paintings depict densely layered cityscapes in which buildings, rooftops, and architectural fragments overlap, creating compositions that oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Drawing inspiration from the rapid transformation of the Ethiopian capital, he captures a city in constant evolution, where traditional structures coexist with contemporary developments. Through his distinctive use of colour, texture, and perspective, Addis transforms the urban environment into a poetic reflection on the the persistence of memory. 

OPENING DAY
Thursday 10 December 2026
Preview | 11am – 4pm
Vernissage | 4pm – 9pm

PUBLIC DAYS | 11am – 7pm
Friday 11 December 2026
Saturday 12 December 2026
Sunday 13 December 2026