Francis Offman

On the one hand, a fresh and innovative pictorial language; on the other, personal experience that becomes universal. The paintings of Francis Offman (born in Butare, Rwanda, in 1987 and moved to Italy in 1999, already enjoying an international career with exhibitions such as his recent solo show at the Secession in Vienna) evoke landscape but remain abstract.

Unframed, they are made with wallpaper, fabrics, acrylic paints, and coffee grounds from which the pigment is extracted. The fact that he ‘constructs’ his own colors is a tribute to the masters of ancient painting. The use of coffee represents an ideal bridge between Rwanda, where intensive cultivation has historically been a cause of exploitation and where its consumption has long been prohibited, and Italy, where it is considered the ‘national drink’. It is a way, he explains, of ‘asking ourselves where the things we consume come from’. Without didactic proclamations, because ‘there are many ways of saying things: you can shout without raising your voice’.

Stefano Castelli