1. Tell us about your very first memory related to art?

Nathanael Koffi: Few people know this, but drawing was my whole life during childhood. I used to spend my time at the local youth center in my neighborhood copying characters into my school notebooks.

Then I started drawing football players, jerseys, and sports equipment brands. As a huge fan of 2000s football, I was completely immersed in that world. I still have a folder with around a hundred hand-drawn pages of jerseys and sports brands from that era.

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2. Can you tell us more about your creative process? How does a work come to life, from the initial idea to the final piece?

Nathanael Koffi: My creative process stems from strong and often contrasting emotions, such as love, joy, but also sadness, nostalgia, or tensions related to racism. I recently created an exhibition focused on the theme of love, exploring its beginnings all the way to the point of no return.

I don’t seek to represent these emotions directly, but rather to translate them into an abstract form. I start in a very intuitive way, exploring painting and mixed media through gestures, materials, and layers. Gradually, a structure emerges, and I enter into a dialogue with the work, between control and letting go.

Sculpture sometimes comes in as an extension, giving a physical presence to these emotions. I consider a piece finished when it reaches a sense of balance and can exist on its own, while still leaving space for the viewer’s interpretation and feeling.

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3. How would you describe your work? What makes your universe recognizable at first glance?

Nathanael Koffi: I believe color is a universal language, but what makes my work recognizable is the imperfect, irregular signature found in my abstract compositions.

They are created with freedom and intuition, I appreciate this self-taught approach that doesn’t obey perfect forms. “The beauty of repetition,” as I like to call it.

4. What inspires you? Where do you draw your ideas from?

Nathanael Koffi: I draw inspiration from my feelings and from what I observe around me, but not in a figurative way. At the moment, ambient and experimental noise music plays a central role in my practice.

Its non-linear nature allows me to obsessively translate it into my work. It is more about atmospheres and energies that speak to me. Painting becomes a space where all of this can transform.

5. Which artists do you like? Who moves you, and why?

Nathanael Koffi: Gosh! What would our world be without artists! More seriously, right now I’m sending a lot of love to Terence Ntsako, a South African artist whose way of staging everyday moments I really admire. It’s very graphic, almost a modern interpretation of cubism, and I always feel like diving into his paintings.

I also have to pay tribute to Yayoi Kusama, for the legacy she has left us.

Closer to home, I have to mention my friend Etienne Quesnay, with whom I “grew up” in my early painting career. His work is constantly evolving, with a much deeper underlying substance. We inspire each other on a daily basis.

6. We sense a renewal in your work and your technique, can you tell us more about it?

Nathanael Koffi: Yes, indeed, there has been an evolution recently. I feel the need to go further, toward deeper subjects, to address heavier themes and translate them in my own way.

As an artist, we have the privilege of freedom of expression, but also of reflection and introspection, which pushes me to explore new questions and energies. I find answers there, as well as new associations of colors, forms, and gestures that open up new horizons for me.

7. Which museums inspire you, and would be goals for future collaborations?

Nathanael Koffi: Simply entering a museum would already be a form of consecration for me. I would mention the Palais de Tokyo, for the symbolism it represents to me in terms of contemporary art.



8. What projects would you like to realize in the future?

Nathanael Koffi: An art car! As someone passionate about cars, especially vintage ones, it would be the realization of a dream I’ve had for years. I have already created a few, on two different types of vehicles, which were very well received.

On a more sentimental level, I would like to develop large-scale mural projects around the world. I have already done some in Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco, and for me it’s a way of leaving my mark on this planet, of beautifying it, sharing my universe, and making art more accessible.

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