Lama Niankoye

Niankoye’s artistic journey began in his hometown N'zérékoré on the southern side of the Republic of Guinea. His passion for drawing and painting led him to go to the National School of Fine Arts in Conakry (the capital) in the 70's.
With a degree in graphic arts, he attended various workshops and experimented with different techniques. Very attentive to the world of shapes and colours, he began by passionately copying nature. He travelled in his own country, to the Ivory Coast and finally to France, where he moved in 1990. He worked as a designer, illustrator and fashion designer, but soon decided to devote himself to painting. Travelling and discoveries opened other perceptions of the world to him and gave him a new vision of art. He was freed from traditional constraints and has leaned towards contemporary art since 2000, and has finally thrived in his abstract creations.
His hometown is a city of about 300,000 inhabitants in the centre of which is a large market. In this market, surrounded by ‘flamboyants’ (trees with beautiful red flowers), visitors are immediately attracted by the movement and colour. The market oh Zalee remains his eternal source of inspiration. In general, the tropical atmosphere of markets and African cities feed his creativity.
Niankoye works in oil and acrylic to recreate scenes of life in his country. The viewer finds the bright colours of Africa in his painting, but the artist stands out from the African Arts by his trend towards abstraction. African themes and his heritage is a base which he does not depart from, but he tries to interpret in a personal way. The vaporous splashes of colour transcribe the impression of movement and tumult specific to these places of exchange.
Niankoye paints his country from all views as if to exhaust her beauty, of which he never tires. His works are a feast for the viewer’s senses.