Kakorrhaphiaphobia, 2022

Maïcha   New & remarkable Artists

Born in Cocody, Abidjan, 22 years old, Maïcha knew she wanted to become a painter only three years ago. She started drawing out of passion from a young age, but it was the enthusiasm and positive reactions of those close to her to her works that inspired her to pursue a career as an artist.

100% self-taught, trying different techniques several times until she got the desired result. She also gives free rein to her imagination and creativity.

Her inspiration comes largely from everything around her: nature, people, their stories, their feelings and her own. Maïcha uses everything she can get her hands on: felt-tip pens, pastels, watercolors, oil paints, but she admits to having a preference for acrylics which she uses all the time. Her paintings, often a subjective expression of the emotions and feelings she can feel in herself or around her, are freely represented as she wishes.When she encounters creative blocks, Maïcha most of the time changes her environment, taking small trips of discovery to learn and see new things that can inspire her.

She wants people to be able to identify with her art, to be able to feel the emotions that come from it. The message she wants to convey through her works is that the art professions are not inaccessible to her community, they are not only "white" professions as the majority thinks.

She is particularly proud of the painting "All Eyes on Me", which is the representation she made of the situation of a subscriber with a disability on social networks, and the painting "Kakorrhaphiophobia", which is the representation of one of her greatest fears, that of failing and disappointing her loved ones.

Her future goals are to learn as many techniques as possible, starting with graffiti and sculpture, which intrigue her a lot. Then, she would like to work on urban projects. She would like to see her works in galleries around the world, including the one in Dakar, which is her heart city.

Her works are pieces of her, her personality, her joys, her follies, her imagination, her dreams, her fears, her insecurities that she shares. What defines her as an artist, besides authenticity, is the freedom she puts in her works that do not follow any technical rules and that differ from each other by the themes addressed and the colors.