Mamadou Ballo is an Ivorian ecological painter and sculptor who works in Abidjan. Mamadou works with recycled objects such as cardboard, plastic bottles, iron, glue, string and pigments. The technique used is modelling / assembly. The woman is his main theme: "Because she represents the earth (the planet) she gives us everything.

 

Art critic Roger Calmé of Zoe.fr describes his work  « It is like a sun. Do not look for a complicated metaphor. A sun is round, it is yellow, it floods things with a beneficial clarity. Mamadou Ballo's creations are powered by this energy alone. His women, his skies, his moods, everything is inscribed in a circle of warm light, desire and gratitude. He says it very simply. "Light is a woman. She gives us everything we need to live, she is our mother".

 

You are probably discovering Ballo through his sculptures. This is evident not only in the volume they occupy. Gigantic certainly, but radiant, generous of the essential, a permanent promise in this sickly age, of a possible cure. Mamadou Ballo's woman soothes the wounds of the soul, she takes us in her arms, she carries us in the sleep which is sun. » Zoe.fr  

 

Location: Abidjan (Ivory Coast)