«Bers Grandsinge» Jean Pierre Mbalaka (Bandundu, DRC, 1955. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium)

Polyuréthane on panel 2015, signed, 60 x 40 cm. Exposition : 2015 Galerie Goldenberg, Paris. Jean Pierre Mbalaka is one of the first artists to settle in Belgium to defend contemporary Congolese art. In fact, he undertook this mission on the advice of Jean Michel Basquiat, whom he had met in Harlem in 1985, where the latter had nicknamed him "the greatest ape in Africa" Later, the artist adapted this nickname to "Grandsinge" and evolved into a multi-faceted artist with a passion for art and an inexhaustible creativity that he developed in different artistic fields: visual and digital art, photography, textile design and music His work translates a very singular vision of humanity in which the human being is in perpetual movement, experiencing a constant mutation in a changing universe Beings trapped in their spirit, in their feelings. The deepest human forces come to light.