Ouattara Watts
Ouattara Watts (b. 1957, Abidjan, Ivory Coast) is an American artist who uses brilliant colors, dynamic patterns, and hypnotic signs and symbols to explore the spiritual ties between people that transcend location or nationality. He constructs fantastic landscapes and mystical scenes to examine these metaphysical relationships. Watts has established a large lexicon of quantitative, geographic, musical, and scientific symbols and forms, both modern and ancient, to communicate his dynamic vision. Taking inspiration from Africa, his Parisian education, and his life in New York, he combines found artifacts, fabric, collage, and traditional painting and drafting methods, creating images that invoke his multicultural identity and give rise to various socio-historical readings. As he has stated: “My vision is not bound to a country or continent…While I use identifiable pictorial elements to be better understood, this project is nevertheless about something much wider. I am painting the Cosmos.” Watts studied at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France, before relocating to New York in 1989.
Photo by James Fischetti
Born 1957, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Lives and works in New York, New York
EDUCATION
1984
L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Karma, New York, Paintings
2019
Fondation Paul Rebeyrolle, Eymoutiers, France, Resonances
Magazzino d’Arte Contemporaneo, Rome
2018
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Before Looking at This Work, Listen to It
La Rotonde, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Get Ready
2016
Magazzino, The Armory Show, New York, New Painting
2015
Galerie Boulakia, Paris
2013
FIAF Gallery, New York, Ouattara Watts: The Project Room
2012
Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, New York, Vertigo
2009
International Contemporary Art at Glen Carlou, Paarl, South Africa, Hess Art Collection: Andy Goldsworthy and Ouattara Watts
2008
Galeria Leyendecker, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands
Hess Art Collection, Paar, South Africa
Magazzino, Rome, Outlaw
2007
Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, Ouattara Watts: For Lily
2006
Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, Ouattara Watts: Works on Paper
2004
The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover
Magazzino, Rome, Crossing Currents-The Synergy of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Ouattara Watts
Marella Arte Contemporanea, Milan
Tracy Williams Gallery, New York
Magazzino, Rome, Ouattara Watts: Opere Recenti, curated by Okwui Enwezor
2002
Leo Koenig, New York
1999
Magazzino, Rome, Ouattara: in Roma
1998
Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, Ouattara: New Work
1996
The Kemper Museum, Kansas City, Ouattara: Dark Star
1995
Gagosian Gallery, New York, Ouattara: New Paintings
1994
University Art Museum, Berkeley, Ouattara
1993
Galerie Boulakia, Paris
1992
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
1990
Galerie Boulakia, Paris
Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya
Vrej Baghoomian, New York
1989
Marilyn Butler Gallery, Los Angeles
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Gwanju Biennale, Gwanju, South Korea, Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Surface Tension
Bienvenu Steinberg & Partner, New York, The Queen of Spades…and other stories
2019
Foire internationale d’art contemporain, Paris
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, L’Esprit du large chapitre II
Galerie Cécile Fakhoury, Dakar, Sénégal, L’Esprit du large
Exposition Panafricaine Itinérante, Casablanca, Prête-moi ton rêve
2018
MAXXI, Rome, African Metropolis, an Imaginary City
13th Dakar Biennial, Dakar, L’heure rouge
2017
FM, Milan, The White Hunter, curated by Marco Scotini
Grande Halle de La Villette, Paris, Afriques Capitales
2016
11th Dakar Biennial, Dakar
2011
Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York, Ouattara Watts and Katy Schimert
2010
Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami, In Dialogue : Four Generations of Painting, curated by Peter Makebish
2009
Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami, HERD THINNER, curated by David Hunt
2006
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Intersections: Shifting Identity in Contemporary Art
Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, Realm of the Spirit
National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., Body of Evidence
2003
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Black President – The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti
2002
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial
Contemporary Art Center, New York, The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994
2001
Gorney Bravin Lee, New York
1997
Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Fukui, Japan
Chiba Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
1994
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Un Altre Pais
La Caixa, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, La Virreina Expositions
1993
Venice Biennale, Venice
1992
Calvin Morris Gallery, New York, Other Drums: Visionary Works
Navara Gallery, New York, Haessle, Ouattara, Ray Smith
1991
Alternative Museum, New York, Syncretism: The Art of the 20th Century
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, Social Sculpture
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
University Art Museum, Berkeley, African Explores: New and Renewed Forms in 20th Century Art
1990
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, It Must Give Pleasure: Erotic Perceptions
Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Images of Death in Contemporary Art
1988
Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York, Summer Exhibition
1986
Galerie Georges Lavrov, Paris
1985
Musée National des Arts Africans et Océaniens, Paris
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Fondacao Sindika Dokolo, Angola
Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris
Fondation Dapper, Paris
The Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation, New Jersey
The Hess Art Collection, South Africa
The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
The Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York
The UC Berkeley Museum of Art and Film Archive, Berkeley
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.
Museum of Modern Art, New York
