Ouattara Watts

Ouattara Watts’s large-scale canvases are dense with photographs and found objects and incorporate a universal visual language whose cryptic symbols, geometric diagrams, and numerical sequences speak to the artist’s cross-cultural identity. The Ivory-Coast-born artist moved to Paris in 1977 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and joined a tight-knit community of expat West African Francophone artists. While in Paris, he also met Jean-Michel Basquiat who, impressed by his work, encouraged Watts to move to New York. Their friendship blossomed around a shared interest in African art and spirituality. By the 1990s, Watts had become one of West Africa’s most famous artists. His work has been presented at the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, and Documenta, among other major international exhibitions. Incorporating images of traditional West African masks alongside references as diverse as Allen Ginsburg and the 2008 financial crisis, Watts’s work bridges ancestral and contemporary worlds.