Hako Hankson

Born in 1968 in Bafang, Cameroon, Hako Hankson lives and works in Douala today.

Self-taught artist, Hako, whose real name is Gaston Hako, was nevertheless promised a different future. However, he chooses painting and the elements that have shaped his youth. Holder of a car mechanic technician's certificate, from the primary classes, he can not help but decorate his classrooms.

Hako has indeed grown under the influence of the art and cultures of the sources of his country. His father, the first notable of his village, was one of the greatest notables of Cameroon in addition to being a sculptor and musician at the Royal Palace. Hako was raised surrounded by objects of the rites of initiation: masks, statuettes, totems etc. which his father used. So many elements that we find today in his works. These sources of inspiration, carefully inserted in his work, plunge us into the fairy world of the characters of the tales and praises of his ancestors, thus grazing the boundary between secular and sacred.

Hako also takes a look at the duality between tradition and contemporaneity and invites us to question the "ashes" of our past to draw from, and especially redefine, our Africanity. He is looking for a future, according to him certain. Whether drawings, paintings, sculptures or any other artistic form, his approach and style are recognizable by the unity that emerges in his works. Finally, engaged artist, he is aware of infrastructural deficits, he transforms his studio into an art center: the "IN and OFF Art Center".

Submitted by OH GALLERY