Jean Servais Somian

Born in 1971 in Ivory Coast, Jean Servais Somian is a designer, cabinetmaker and sculptor.

He excels in the art of transforming wood, his material of choice. Bearer of ancestrality, very sharp artist in terms of finishes, he introduced the original color into his art.

Inspired by nature, he works with coconut, ebony or amazaque wood. Embodying a hybrid art, made of mixed influences, he revisits everyday African objects such as old canoes transformed into sofas, trunks of coconut trees that become mirrors, bookcases or plastic basins overturned and topped with wax cushions ... comfortable basin stools in African fabrics of shimmering colors, as many furniture and sculptures with clean lines: his creativity is expressed through these original pieces.

       Trained at the age of 16 with the Lebanese Georges Ghandour, he made his debut between the Ivory Coast and Switzerland: at the cabinet-making center of Ghandour in Abidjan and craftsman of Grand-Bassam then in Lausanne within the agency of design Daniel Beck. He works the palm tree thanks to a craftsman descended from a family of sculptors of the king, the "old Kanga". Long years lived like an in-between in Africa and Europe.

Jean Servais Somian is multiplying solo shows and group shows in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Africa in prestigious spaces: galleries, museums, Foundations, in Geneva, Cologne, Paris, Dakar, Algiers, Aachen. His art has joined illustrious collections around the world: notably Mathias & Gervane Leridon, King Mohammed VI of Morocco.