October Gallery
AKAA 2018

Alexis Peskine at AKAA Fair, Paris
9th – 11th November 2018

October Gallery, London, announces their participation in the 2018 edition of Also Known As Africa (AKAA) with an exciting solo booth of works by rising contemporary star Alexis Peskine.

Following the success of Power Figures, Alexis Peskine’s 2017 solo show at October Gallery, the solo booth presentation at AKAA will present new works by the artist.

Peskine’s signature works are large-scale mixed media portraits of a variety of individuals rendered by the painstaking process of hammering nails of different gauge, with pin-point accuracy, into treated wooden planks, resulting in intensely visceral composites. Metaphorically connecting the nail to the Black Experience, Peskine depicts figures that portray strength, perseverance and self-possession, with energy startlingly reminiscent of the Minkisi “power figures” of the Congo Basin, spiritually charged objects whose traditional function was to protect and ward off evil spirits.

Biographical Notes

Born in Paris, in 1979, Peskine obtained a BFA in Painting and Photography at Howard University, Washington, DC, an MA in Digital Arts at Maryland Institute College of Arts in Baltimore, and when awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, he continued at M.I.C.A. to complete a further MFA Degree. He has participated in many international fairs and exhibitions, including the 3rd Black Arts World Festival and the Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal; Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Frieze New York, Pulse Art Fair, New York, Miami Art Basel’s Prizm exhibit, Miami, USA; Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, Morocco; AKAA (Also Known As Africa) and Afriques Capitales, La Villette, Paris, France; and 1:54, London UK. In 2018, photographs from Peskine’s Aljana Moon series, 2015, were part of the recent hit group show In Their Own Form at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography. Also this year, works by Peskine were shown at Black Mediterranean: ReSignifications held at Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo, Sicily. Peskine is represented by October Gallery, London.