The portrait genre has evolved a lot in painting with the remarkable and valuable contributions of European masters in particular, but its development took place in detriment of black bodies. Portraits of black people are rare and often marginalized in the history of art. The Parisian 193 Gallery continues its cycle of shows under the concept “Color and Matter” with its second exhibition Traits to remember: the aesthetics and politics of black portraits. Across the portrait practice, the artists Sesse Enlangwe Ngeseli, Idris Habib and Bara Sketchbook carry out a work of memory by celebrating the black body. All three from West Africa and working between Africa and the United States, Sesse Enlangwe Ngeseli, Idris Habib and Bara Sketchbook really capture humanity in a contemporary way, with emotion, truth and meaning. With this set of works, the exhibition creates a new iconography of African community and its diaspora.

Featured image: © Bara Sketchbook, © Idris Habib, © Sesse Elangwe Ngeseli