Abdias Ngateu

Abdias Ngateu (b. 1990, Douala, Cameroon) creates work that reflects upon contemporary society, by attributing animal heads to his characters, who travel precariously on modes of personal transportation, overloaded with cargo. Drawing inspiration from urban space and personal experience, Ngateu is motivated by this desire to share with others his most intimate feelings, personal emotions and vision of this chaotic world. In his series "taxi-motorcycles", Abdias creates scenes of the daily lives of the people of Cameroon. His paintings are an allegory of the urban disorder generated by overloaded taxi-motorcycles, called "Bend-Skin", well-known in Cameroon. Ngateu's works are distinguished by his unique and personal way of “animalizing" his subjects, depicting bodies of men with humorous heads of giraffes, lions, antelopes, and elephants. Ngateu explains: "If I represent humans like this, it is because of their way of life, their inhumane behavior towards others. I paint a disproportionate society where the abnormal becomes the norm."