William Adjété Wilson

William Adjété WILSON was born in Tours, France, to a mother from Orleans and a father from Togo-Benin. He lives and works between Paris, Benin, Togo and Haiti. 

In 1972, William A Wilson made his first trip to Togo and the following year, he discovered artistic practice during his studies of philosophy and anthropology in Paris. He chose to devote himself to it and became a self-taught artist. Following numerous trips to Europe and West Africa, William Adjété Wilson presented his first exhibition in Paris in 1976. From 1983 onwards, he regularly exhibited his work in France, Europe, Africa and the United States. 

William A Wilson works mainly with soft pastel on paper, but he also creates sculptures-assemblages in wood, paintings, prints (lithographs, linocuts, serigraphs) as well as numerous collages.

Most of William Adjété WILSON's works are created from fabrics, a passion inherited from his grandmother who sold wax fabric coupons on the Cotonou market.

Through his collages of wax on paper, his works of applied fabrics or embroidery of sequins (in collaboration with Haitian artisans), the artist develops his imagination around the themes of Vodoun cosmogony, history and myths of Africa.

"Between modernity and tradition, between Africa and the West, William Adjété WILSON questions our relationship to the world, the question of crossbreeding and the stereotypes of our societies. At the crossroads of the different entities that are Africa and the West, History and Modernity, WA Wilson defines himself above all as a citizen of the world. He explores his environment refusing any categorization. 

Simon Njami (writer and art critic)

"This full and deep thing that we call today a work of art would not be then like the indifferent (interchangeable) reproduction of an elsewhere in the world but like the place inhabited by a presence that we guess and that overflows us at the same time, inexhaustible, therefore. Image not only of a society but also of a relationship to the world. William Adjété Wilson

Main exhibitions :

From 2008 to 2009, during 6 successive stays in Benin, he realized in a workshop in Abomey a series of 18 hangings in dyed cotton appliqué that he entitled "L'Océan Noir, the Black Ocean, O Oceano negro". This is his first work in collaboration with traditional craftsmen. This realization is the subject of the first book of his trilogy devoted to Africans and Afro-descendants. The book "l'Océan Noir" was published in 2009 by Gallimard.

Throughout the years 2009 to 2020, the traveling exhibition "The black ocean / O Oceano negro" is presented in various places and in different countries: In France, Italy, Israel, Mali, Belgium, Switzerland, Senegal, United States, Congo, Togo, Benin, Brazil, Cameroon.

The work of the artist is in perpetual movement, he travels constantly. 

His work of hangings (celebration flags used in the vodou cult) initially started in Benin is now also implemented in Haiti. The technique is different since in Haiti the fabric appliqué has been replaced by beads and sequins: 

In Haiti, Port au Prince:

In 2016, WA Wilson will have a series of 25 "drapô" made from his drawings, illustrating the highlights of the history of the first black republic, by the artisans of the Valentin Valris workshop in Port-au-Prince, known for their beading technique, using sequins and glass beads attached to the canvas. 

William Adjété Wilson invites us to reflect on Haiti's place in the world and in our history.

More recently, he has devoted himself to works using the techniques of cutting and pasting fabric on paper:  

William Adjété Wilson uses pieces of WAX fabric recovered from the sewing workshops in the neighborhood where he lives in Benin. 

All these colors, these forms, these stories around each fabric will inspire him. 

William A Wilson will be in love with these textiles that somehow reflect the history of his life. 

He will first glue them on the postcards that he sends to his friends around the world as if to say, "I am sending you pieces of my story that I am trying to put back together".

This is how William will create from 2014 to 2018 the series of "CENT-UN Vodouns" composed of 101 collages of WAX textile on paper size 90 X 67 cm approximately.

He will use thick, handmade paper to retranscribe symbols, dreams, memories that are mixed with everyday objects.

All these figures and this imagination also plunge us into the heart of the vodou culture, a religious cult preserved by the slaves of Africa and widespread throughout the Atlantic world of Afro-descendants.