Louis Kakudji, b. 1978
Biography

Louis Kakudji, who signs his work simply as Kakudji and has also exhibited as KiBaFiKa Kakudji, was born on 28 January 1978 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His family's path into exile took him through Rwanda and Zambia before he settled in the United States, where he graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York in 1997.

Working primarily in collage, Kakudji builds his compositions from appropriated photographic and printed material — drawn from advertising, popular culture and, at times, pornography — combined with paint, drawing and found objects. His deliberately raw, confrontational aesthetic has been described as unsettling received ideas about art, originality and value, and his practice has been called "anti-art" for the way it disturbs and provokes.

Kakudji has shown in group and solo exhibitions across the United States and Europe since 1996, in cities including New York, Paris, Brussels, Bordeaux, Nantes, Detroit and Bruges. His work is the subject of a monograph, Louis Kakudji, published by Éditions de l'Œil in collaboration with SPARCK (Space for Pan-African Research, Creation and Knowledge). His known works, 'The Signs of Life' and 'Cirage Américain' (both 2001), are held by African Contemporary gallery.