Jonathan Carver Moore is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Cameroonian painter Sesse Elangwe at FOG Design + Art. As the gallery’s fourth artist-in-residence, Elangwe developed this body of work in response to the city of San Francisco—its people, density, and visual rhythms—while navigating the experience of being present in the city.
Working in his signature visual language—marked by bold geometry, vibrant color, and emotionally charged eyes—Elangwe uses color as both structure and signal. Saturated blues, greens and reds often concentrate around the head, hair, or face, creating focal points that guide the viewer’s gaze. These chromatic accents emphasize identity and presence, functioning almost as visual markers within each composition.
A defining feature of this series is Elangwe’s manipulation of focus and perception. His paintings shift between areas of extreme precision and passages that feel intentionally out of focus—figures recede, backgrounds blur, and landscapes dissolve. This lens-like approach to seeing raises questions about attention and visibility: who is rendered clearly, who fades into the periphery, and how power operates through acts of looking. Elangwe invites the viewer to slow down and consider how clarity and obscurity shape our understanding of one another.
The eyes remain central to this inquiry. Often frontal and unwavering, Elangwe’s figures meet the viewer directly, creating a charged exchange that places the viewer on equal footing with the subject. This sustained gaze resists passivity and asserts presence, turning the act of looking into a moment of confrontation and recognition. It is through the eyes that Elangwe also engages the legacy of Cubism—not as appropriation, but as transformation. While modernist Cubism historically drew from African visual traditions, Elangwe approaches fragmentation and multiplicity from within his own lineage, using the eye as a site where multiple perspectives and identities converge.
Recurring themes in Elangwe’s practice include diaspora, self-perception, power structures, and the multiplicity of Black identity. In this residency-born series, he often depicts a single figure in sharp focus, with others receding into the background—a departure from earlier works centered more overtly on community. This shift reflects his experience of navigating San Francisco as a lone observer, encountering the city through one concentrated gaze.
Sesse Elangwe (b. 1994, in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon) is a self-taught Cameroonian visual artist whose work blends his African heritage with influences from realism, pop art, surrealism, and cubism. Elangwe works primarily in acrylic on canvas, creating evocative portraiture that places emphasis on the complexity of Black identity, diaspora, and personal narrative. He has exhibited widely across Africa, Europe, North America, and Australia. He currently lives and works in San Antonio, Texas, and his work has been acquired by several international private and institutional collections, highlighting a growing global recognition of his art. He has participated in several art fairs including: EXPO CHICAGO, 1-54 (London), Contemporary Istanbul and more.