Mesoamerican myths in contemporary art
The work of Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon from Guadeloupe presents a compelling examination of identity and the collective human condition through the lens of indigenous themes, including the myths of Mesoamerica and the cosmogony of the Maya. In his pursuit of understanding the nature of being, he employs a layered approach to imagery, imbued with profound symbolic significance. By employing a meticulous process, he fuses figuration and abstraction with the objective of capturing the "invisible" and constructing a bridge between disparate realities.
Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon (* 1961) is a painter from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. His triangular career (Europe-Africa-America) is a search for being, a quest and a constant questioning of the mystery of life. Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon explores the illusion of the visible world through Mesoamerican myths, Mayan cosmogony and the spirituality of Native Americans. He takes us into the realm of the subtle and unspeakable.
Technically, Akwaba Matignon works primarily in acrylic. His work consists of a layering of pictorial layers, each of which is a symbolic representation of the world. The final layer, which gives the work its final structure, is usually white or black and represents his dream figure "Kioukan" (Who? Where? When?). The indigenous theme in his work raises questions about "who we are".
The format of the works, the composition, the choice of colours and the titles are part of a process of reflection on the why of painting. The figures in the works are the result of graphic studies. Akwaba Matignon's work moves between figuration and abstraction, capturing the "invisible".
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