Born in 1980 in Burkina Faso, Souleimane Barry is a painter based in France. His native Africa, his roots, and his relationship with nature form the foundation of an experimental pictorial practice.
Describing his approach as “imaginary figuration,” Souleimane Barry paints without preliminary sketches, allowing human, animal, and vegetal forms to gradually emerge. His practice is grounded in an intuitive relationship with matter, built on layering, transparencies, and reworkings that feed a pictorial language in constant transformation. Every trace contributes to the narrative depth of the image. His often spontaneous compositions arise from a subtle balance between control and release, where the accident not only guides the gesture but reveals it. In his work, technique is never demonstrative, but always in service of emotion and sensibility.
By dissolving the boundaries between living realms, his work weaves a pantheistic and poetic narrative, where nature no longer plays a decorative role but becomes an active presence, fully integrated into the living world.
Souleimane Barry was born in 1980 in Burkina Faso. He underwent several trainings, including at the calligraphy workshop in Bobo-Dioulasso, as well as at the advertising billboard calligraphy workshop, which allowed him to develop his eclectic style. Several drawing and painting programs in Burkina Faso also helped him perfect his pictorial technique. He has been exhibited internationally and has participated in several art fairs such as AKAA and Art Paris.
Born in 1980 in Burkina Faso
Lives and works between France and Burkina Faso
EDUCATION
2008
Academic course in animation cinema, Institut IMAGINE, Ouaga, Burkina Faso
2005
Practical work Hang’art 11 centre des arts plastique, Ouaga, Burkina Faso
Academic painting classes, centre Gambidi, Ouaga, Burkina Faso
2004
Drawing classes at the French Institute, Ouaga, Burkina Faso
2000
Academic course at the Calligraphy Workshops for Advertising Billboards, Ouaga, Burkina Faso
1992
Academic course at the Calligraphy Workshops of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
EXHIBITIONS
2024
Open studio, Festival AR(t)CHIPEL, Centre Pompidou et la région centre val de Loire, France
Group show, AFRICAINS EVERYWHERE, collection Margaux et Raphaël BLAVY, France
2023
Group show, SUPRA NATURE, Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, France
Group show, THE NEW AFRICAN PORTRAITURE, Shariat Collections, Kunsthalle, Krems, Austria
2022
Solo show, REGENERESCENCE, Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, Paris, France
ART PARIS ART FAIR, Grand Palais Ephémère/Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX Paris, France
1-54 Contemporain African Art Fair/Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, London, UK
2021
AKAA foire d’art contemporain Africain/ Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, Paris, France
Group Show, IMAGINAIRES EMANCIPES, AKAA & Manifesta Lyon, Galerie Manifesta, Lyon, France
1-54 contemporary African art fair/ Galerie Anne DeVillepoix, Paris, France
2020
Group Show, AKAA A LA GALERIE, Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, France
Solo Show, L’IMAGINAIRE, Galerie Anne De VILLEPOIX, France
Solo Show, TRAVELING, Gallery 2Sun, Tucson, Arizona, USA
2019
BISO-Off Biennale Internationale de sculpture de Ouaga, Burkina Faso
Solo show, PAYSAGES URBAINS & VISAGES ANONYMES, Onomo Visual Art, Lomé, Togo
2018
Residency Arkane Africa, Rabat, Morocco
Group Show, ARKANE AFRICA, Casablanca, Morocco
