Born in 1972 in Namur, Belgium
Lives and works in Dakar, Senegal
Fabrice Monteiro is an Agouda, the descendant of Brazilian slaves with Portuguese names. His background is multicultural: he was born in Belgium, grew up in Benin, and now lives and works in Dakar, Senegal. Monteiro worked as a model for around a decade before becoming a photographer himself in 2007, after meeting the New York based photographer Alfonse Pagano. Photography came naturally to him, first as a professional model, he became aware of the complexity of the composition, the lighting and the posture. Passed behind the lens, Fabrice Monteiro’s images are at the intersection between photojournalism and fashion photography. “The diversity of my origins is my first source of inspiration. Relations between African and Europe have constantly fluctuated between attraction and rejection, empowerment and denial, recognition and anger. They have never been indifferent. The history of the African-European people over the last centuries, that I have inherited the complexity, is my main source of inspiration”
The photographic series The Prophecy was begun in 2013, when Monteiro returned to Africa after several years’ absence, and discovered the devastating pollution that had overtaken the continent. The series was based on nine different environmental problems in Senegal, including forest fires, plastic waste and oil spills, and was gradually expanded to address worldwide pollution. This theme is personified in the photos of various figures who were inspired by West African masquerades and animism. The beautiful and distressing figures were created in collaboration with the Senegalese fashion designer Doulsy, who devised couture-like costumes made of trash and natural materials.
Fabrice Monteiro’s latest works “8 Mile Wall” explore some of the stereotypical ways in which Africans were, and in some places continue to be, displayed. The series was inspired by a conversation he had with his father as a boy when he realized that, as a black man, the only way to be treated with consideration in Europe at the time was to wear a three-piece suit. Despite the rising brightness regarding Africa’s prospects Monteiro believes that, in a way, we are still trying to wear three-piece suits. Monteiro has a suggestion for those who may be interested in photography “I believe that you have to start looking into yourself, into what you are concerned with, your angers, your fears, the thing that you don’t understand in order to find the subjects you are interested in and to develop them.” The great thing about photography, he says, is that the medium is almost a therapy.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 – 2022
The Prophecy de Fabrice Monteiro, Muséum Bordeaux, France, September 18th, 2021 – January 16th, 2022
2021
Fabrice Monteiro, Signares, Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris, France, 28 May – 31 July 2021
2019 – 2020
Fabrice Monteiro : The Prophecy, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, October 5th 2020 – January 5th 2021
2018
The 8 Mile Wall, Dak’Art Biennale, Saint Louis, Senegal, May 3rd – June 2nd 2018
2016
Fabrice Monteiro : Marrons, Marianne Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle, USA, February 4th – March 12th, 2016
2014
“Vues” de l’esprit, Dak’Art, Fondation TOTAL, Dakar, Senegal, May 9th – June 8th, 2014
La voie du Baye Fall, Institut Français, Dakar, Senegal, February 9th – March 29th, 2014
2013
La voie du Baye Fall, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris, France, September 13th – December 21st, 2013
Bull Doff, Contes et Légendes, Onomo Visual Art, Dakar, Senegal, May 31st – October 13th, 2013
2012 – 2013
Signares, Onomo Visual Art, Libreville, Gabon, October 1st, 2012 – March 1st, 2013
2011
Wind of change, Maison du peuple, Bruxelles, Belgium
GROUP SHOWS
2022
And I Must Scream, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, USA, January 29th – May 15th, 2022
2021 – 2022
Prix Pictet 2021 : Fire, V&A Museum, London, United Kingdom, December 16th, 2021 – January 9th, 2022
Back to Future – Technical Visions between Reality and Science Fiction
– Museum for Communication, Frankfurt, Germany, November 11th, 2020 – August 29th, 2021
– Museum for Communication, Berlin, Germany, September 23rd 2021 – August 28th, 2022
Photoclimat, Biennale sociale et environnementale de Paris, The Prophecy Project
– Domaine National de Saint Cloud, September 18th – October 17th 2021
– La Seyne sur Mer, October 25th, 2021 – January 9th, 2021
2021
KIKK Festival, KIKK in Town, Etablissement des Soeurs Notre Dame, Namur, November 4th – November 8th, 2021
2020 – 2021
Afrika – Im Blick de Fotografen, Weltkulirerbe, Völklinger Hütte, Germany, April 4th, 2020 – January 31st, 2021
2020
Good as Gold : Fashioning Senegalese Women, North Carolina Museum of Art, USA, September 9th, 2020 – January 3rd, 2021
Alpha Crucis : African Contemporary Art, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, January 31st – June 9th , 2020
Landmarks, Williams College Museum of Arts, Williamstown, USA, January 25th – May 5th, 2020
In their Own Form, University of Texas, Austin, USA, January 21st – May 16th, 2020
YaPhoto – (DES)Illusions, Musée national de Yaoundé – Institut Français, Yaoundé, Cameroun, March 12th – March 31st, 2020
2015 – 2019
Making Africa : A Continent of Contemporary Design : (curators: Amélie Klein, Okwui Enwezor)
– Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, USA, October 14th, 2020 – January 1st, 2019
– Albuquerque Museum, USA, February 2nd, 2018 – May 6th, 2018
– High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA, October 14th, 2017 – January 17th, 2018
– Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands, October 1st, 2016 – January 17th, 2017
– CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, March 21st, 2016 – August 28th, 2016
– Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, October 30th, 2015 – February 21st, 2016
Vitra Design Museum, Germany, March 14th, 2015 – September 13th, 2015
2019
SEEDS for future memories, Villa Romana, Florence, Italy
SEEDS for future memories, Voicing the Two Ends of Migration, IFA Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Vu d’Afrique, Artcurial, Wien, Austria
2018
In their own form, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dak’Art, L’heure Rouge, Palais de Justice, Dakar, Sénégal
Songes d’hier, rêveries du présent, MuPho (Musée de la photographie de Saint-Louis), Saint-Louis, Sénégal
Afrique, Les religions de l’extase, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (MEG), Genève, Switzerland (curator: Boris Wastiau)
Cry of Victory and short walks to freedom – Project + gallery, St Louis, USA (curator: Modou Dieng)
Beyond Borders, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Michigan, USA (curator: Laura de Becker)
ReSignifications : The Black Mediterranean, ZAC Gallery, Manifesta 12, Palerme, Italy
2017
Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Germany (curators: Inke Arns, Fabian Saavedra-Lara)
Impressions mémorielles, Musée de l’Homme, Paris, France
Back Stories, Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2016
African Art against the State, Museum of Art, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
Why not ask again ?, 11ème Biennale de Shanghai, Shanghai, Chine
Dakar – Martigny, hommage à la biennale d’art contemporain, Martigny, Suisse Réenchantements, Dak’ART Biennale, Dakar, Sénégal
Bureau Europa – The next big thing is not a thing, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2015
Telling time, Rencontres de Bamako – Photography encounters, Bamako, Mali
LagosPhoto Festival, Lagos, Nigeria
Africa Architecture, culture & identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (curators: Kjeld Ljeldsen, Mathias Ussing Seeberg)
– Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
– MEG – Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, Suisse
– Iziko Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
– Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
– Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
– MACAAL – Fondation Alliance, Marrakech, Maroc
– MuPho, Musée de la photographie, Saint-Louis, Sénégal
Collections
Musée ethnographique de Genève – MEG – Genève, Switzerland
Museum of Contemporary Photography – Chicago, USA
Musée de la photographie de St- Louis – St Louis, Senegal
Macaal Museum, Fondation Alliances, Marrakesh, Morocco
iziko Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Williams College Museum of Art
Mott Walsh Collection, Flint, Michigan
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
Publications
Liberation, Smithonian Magazine, african arts, jeune Afrique, Le courrier Internationale, GUP Magazine, L’insensé, The british journal of photography, Spiegel,
