Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou, Egoungoun - Adé I 2017. © Courtesy Smac Gallery

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou

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Born in 1965

Lives & works in Benin

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8 single expositions

45 grouped expositions & fairs

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK. - 2013

Private Collections : Serge Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Gibraltar; CAAC Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland; Scheryn Art Fund, Cape Town, South Africa; Chritopher E. Olofsen Collection, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, USA; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv,Israel

Public Collections : The Switzerland Museum of modern Art, Zurich, Switzerland; Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, Uk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA;

Collected by museums and foundations : Zeitz - Museum Of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)Museum Od Modern Art, Equatorial Guinea;

Presentation of the artist

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou is one of the pre-eminent photographers of the Republic of Benin. Born in Porto-Novo in 1965, he was trained by his father, the world-renowned photographer Joseph Moise Agbodjelou (1912-2000). Leonce’s ongoing portraiture project, 'Citizens of Porto-Novo,' captures the people of Benin’s capital. Using a daylight studio and a medium format film, the artist interprets the experience of a generation caught between tradition and progress.

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou is the founder and director of the first photographic school in Benin which opened in 2013, and has recently been appointed the president of the Photographer’s Association of Porto-Novo. Agbodjélou is the recipient of the 2013 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize which he was awarded by the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK.

In 2018, Agbodjélou presented work as part of Ex Africa: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil, which ran from 28 April until 16 July. Agbodjélou also participated in the group show, Pop Stars! Popular Culture and Contemporary Art at 21c in Oklahoma City, USA, which ran until February 2019. Agbodjélou’s work was also part of the travelling exhibition, Making Africa, which was open at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Texas and ran until the 6 January 2019. His work is currently being exhibited at The Mint Museum in North Carolina, as part of the group exhibition Africa-Print Fashion Now! A story of taste, globalization and style. Most recently, Agbodjélou’s work is currently up on show as part of Masquerada – the inaugural exhibition at Akka Project in Venice, Italy; as well as Fashioning Black Identity: Africa and the African Diaspora up on exhibition at Cairns Art Gallery in Australia.

Nationality : Benin

Photography Contemporary Art

In connection with

SMAC Gallery, Cape Town - South Africa

CV

1965

Born in Porto-Novo, Benin

Solo exhibitions & presentations

2016

Borderlands, Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK

2015

Egungun Masquerades, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou: Code Noir, Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK

2013

The Egungun Project, Kleinschmidt Fine Photographs, Wiesbaden, Germany

2013

Citizens of Porto-Novo, Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK

2012

Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou: Demoiselles de Porto-Novo, Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK

2011

Egungun Project, Jack Bell Gallery, Londo, UK.

2010

From Dahomey to Benin, Jack Bell Gallery, London, UK

CV

Group exhibitions & fairs

2018

Enwezor, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque; Blanton Museum of Arts, Austin, USA

2018

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, [Travelling Exhibition], curated by Amelie Klein & Okwui

2018

The Atlantic Triangle, curated by Alfons Hug, 11th Bienal Do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

2018

African-Print Fashion Show Now! A Story Of Taste, Globalisation, and Style, [Travelling Exhibition], Memphis

2018

Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, USA, Blanton Museum of Art, Texas, USA

2017

Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design, [Travelling Exhibition], curated by Amelie Klein & Okwui Enwezor, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA

2017

African-Print Fashion Show Now! A Story Of Taste, Globalisation, and Style, Fowler Museum at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, USA.

2017

X: Part I, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2017

EX AFRICA, [Travelling Exhibition], curated by Alfons Hug, Centre Cultural Banco Do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro; Brasília; São Paulo; and Belo Horizonte, Brazil

2017

All Things Being Equal, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa

2017

1: 54 Contemporary African Art Fair (Jack Bell Gallery), Somerset House, London, UK

2017

PEER, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2017

X: Part III, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa