Sesse Elangwe (born in 1994) is an artist from Buea, Cameroon. A self-taught painter, he discovered his love for creation at a young age through an artistic program for children offered by a Cameroonian company.
In 2020, thanks to a national program, he obtained his green card, allowing him to move to the United States. This event was a major turning point in his life, enabling him and his family to escape the rising conflicts plaguing his homeland.
Now based in San Antonio, Texas (USA), Sesse Elangwe creates captivating paintings that stem from his deep reflections on personal and collective encounters, which reflect his cultural and socio-political environment. Drawing from the aesthetics of realism, pop art, and surrealism, Elangwe uses portraiture to critically document certain conditions experienced by Black people worldwide. The timeliness of his acrylic-painted subjects often interacts with the vividness of the colors he employs.
Objects like a vacuum cleaner, a yellow safety vest, a suitcase, or simply fashionable clothing serve as clues to the space and context occupied by the artist and his subjects. They convey a shared experience of time and space through a personal lens, anchoring the artist's work in pressing sociocultural realities. While the simplicity of the scenes may seem insignificant, the direct gaze of the characters, with the now-characteristic asymmetrical eyes, encourages viewers to connect and project themselves into this shared reality. They invite contemplation and introspection, like a glimmer of hope. The Black skin of his protagonists sharply contrasts with the other vibrant colors he uses, heightening the perceived gravity of the artist's subjects. This pigmentation defines the boundaries of their bodies, serving as a thread in the artist's work and a boundary through which contextualization is crucial.
Elangwe's works have been collected globally—The Green Family Art Foundation (Texas), the W Art Foundation (China), the Xitang Foundation (China), the Lester Marks Collection (Texas), the Schulting Collection (Amsterdam, Netherlands), the Pamela Hornik Collection (California), the Tim Tan Collection (Philippines), the Casauccelo Collection (Philippines), Marcus Tan Ser Lay (Malaysia), the Roberto Mancini Collection (France).