Abdoulaye Konaté

Abdoulaye Konaté’s vibrant, layered textiles draw on craft traditions in Mali, the artist’s home country. In compositions of colored cotton strips, Konaté reflects on how cloth can commemorate and communicate motifs that range from the ancestral to the contemporary. The artist studied painting at the Institut National des Arts in Bamako (where he still lives and works) and at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. Konaté has exhibited in New York, Lagos, London, Paris, Casablanca, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of numerous awards, having been named an Officer of the National Order of Mali as well as a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Konaté’s abstract compositions have thematized globalization, climate change, and the AIDS epidemic.