Clémence Gbonon
Clémence Gbonon was born in France in 1994 and lives and works in Paris. The artist graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She is the recipient of the 2026 Prix Sarr, which includes a residency in partnership with Villa Albertine. The artist participates in the second exhibition from the Reiffers Initiatives collection entitled “The Living Room,” a meeting with the emerging French contemporary art scene.
View of the exhibition “The Living Room”
Clémence Gbonon , 2026
Another Incendiary Dream, 195 × 130 cm. Oil on canvas.
Clémence Gbonon, 2025
View of the exhibition “The Living Room”
Clémence Gbonon, 2026Biography
Clémence Gbonon constructs her compositions like “wastelands,” where objects, motifs, and traces of everyday life—sentimental, utilitarian, or abandoned—confront one another at the heart of the canvas.
Inspired by the vitality and power of American painters associated with figurative expressionism, such as Bob Thompson, Sylvia Snowden, and Philip Guston, Gbonon develops a reflection on liberation through color, physicality, and performativity. The artist is also influenced by vernacular practices such as those of Frank Walter and Thornton Dial; her approach favors material experimentation, allowing intuition to guide vibrant lines and colors.
Her pictorial work offers a psychic space marked by conflict, transformation, and self-determination, where the unconscious can surface. Clémence Gbonon has exhibited at the Palais des Beaux-Arts and, internationally, at the Bomb Factory Art Foundation (London), Parfümerie (Frankfurt), FF Projects (Lagos), Cooper Union, and Canada Gallery (New York). She has been represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery since 2026.