Barthélémy Toguo

Toguo was born in 1967 in Cameroon, and lives between Paris and Bandjoun. He trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; the École Supérieure d'Art in Grenoble, France; and the Kunstakademie, in Düsseldorf, Germany. He founded Bandjoun Station, a centre for artistic exchange between local and international artists featuring residencies, an exhibition space, a library and plantations in Bandjoun, Cameroon, in 2007.

Solo shows have taken place at institutions including the Nantes History Museum; Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain; Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany; Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), USA; La Malmaison Art Center, Cannes, Fance; Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris, France; Parrish Art Museum, New York, USA; Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden; Musée d'art contemporain de Sainte Etiennne, France; La Verrière by Hermès, Brussels, Belgium; Fundaçao Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal; and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
 
Notable group shows include Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, USA (2022); fragilités at Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic (2022); rīvus, the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2022); Global(e) Resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2020); Taming Y/Our Passion, fourth Aichi Triennale, Japan (2019); IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy, BOZAR Centre for Arts, Belgium (2019); Perilous Bodies, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, USA (2019); Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, fourth Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India (2018); seventh Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Japan (2018); Homo Planta, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France (2018); The Red Hour, 13th Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2018); Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2017); All The World's Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015); Body Language, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA (2013); La Triennale: Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012); 11th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2012); A terrible beauty is born, 11th Biennale de Lyon, France; 18th Sydney Biennale, Australia (2011); and Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London, UK (2008).

In 2011, Toguo was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature in France. He was shortlisted for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2016 and was among the winners of the 2nd Prix Artiste Citoyen Engagé by the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso in 2022. 

His work is in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon; Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Kunstsammlungen der Stadt, Düsseldorf, among others. 

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