Born in 1991, Cynthia Colney is a French-Malagasy painter living in Abidjan. During the coronavirus pandemic that slowing down her activities within an associative platform, she decided to devote herself fully to painting. Femininity and identity are omnipresent in her work whose luminous colors, symbols and dreamlike celebrate the feminine beauty and nature. Her canvas reveal women of diverse origins who meet and mingle where geographical, ethnic and cultural boundaries no longer exist. It invites contemplation through the play of superimposed forms, colors and symbols from which emerge a multitude of details that catch the eye of the spectator.
Instagram @cynthiacolney
1.Le coup de soleil, 2020, oil on canva, 200 x 260 cm
During this time of global pandemic, Cynthia Colney felt the need to express the notion of space and light evoking life. The only “striking” element that these women have in common is the sun, which is a striking parallel to the increased violence against them during the lock down.
2.Nature vivante, 2022, oil and pastel on canva, 80 x 90 cm
This canva depicts the invisible through these superimpositions games that grab a blurred energy scrambling the spectator’s eyes. This real hide-and-seek translates the presence as well as the absence such as the sign of a passage or a transformation as the butterfly does, a recurring symbol within the work of the artist.
3.Les femmes d’abord, 2020, oil on canva, 200 x 260 cm
To escape from the anxious daily life due to the pandemic, Cynthia Colney paints large formats such as this life-size composition. It represents women, who would never meet outside of this canvas. They are accompanied by a discreet symbol specific to this period through the figure of a pangolin.
4.Au pays d’Eve, 2022, oil on canva, 200 x 260 cm
The artist shares her own version of the creation myth where an osmosis is revealed between women and animals. They are in total plenitude within a luxuriant nature. Absent from this composition, Adam gives way to an harmony between the living and the nature. The pernicious elements such as the apple or the snake become accomplices of this green prosperity.
5.Self-portrait (ongoing), 2022, oil on canva
For the artist, identity is plural. By deconstructing her own representation, she wishes to expose the complexity of individuality through an introspection in relation to her own conception of herself. She then becomes her own model, changing, sometimes dissonant or similar to a third party. By dissecting the past, the values that form the singular person that she is, she is mirroring the one we all are behind our shells of social or cultural order.
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