The Invisible City: Obou Gbais

LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery is pleased to present The Invisible City, the new solo show by Obou Gbais.

An Ivorian artist trained in Abidjan, Obou was first spotted by LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery during his final-year internship at the École des Beaux-Arts d’Abidjan. His visual language, already highly developed at the time, quickly asserted itself through a strong signature : the use of the Dan mask as a central motif in his compositions. Long depicted in its most pure and traditional form, the mask gradually became a space for experimentation. It humanized, came to life, revealing gazes, expressions, fragments of emotion.

Yet behind these figures, another element has always been present: the city — his city. His neighborhood.

Locodjro, with its narrow streets, precarious housing, stacked constructions, improvised and alive.

It is within this territory that the artist’s personal history is deeply rooted. Forced to flee with his family during the 2002 politico-military crisis, they found refuge in Locodjro, where they eventually settled. This displacement marked an intimate turning point in Obou’s life. Locodjro became a place of anchorage, of reconstruction, but also a space of observation, memory, and projection.

Since then, this neighborhood has continuously nourished his work — through its forms, its rhythms, and the dense, vibrant energy that runs through his compositions. Today, as these spaces are being weakened, transformed, and in some cases erased, this urban memory takes on an even greater urgency.

For a long time, these landscapes served as silent backdrops to the scenes unfolding in his paintings. Today, they become the subject. Obou shifts his focus — and takes a risk. That of moving away from what first defined his recognition, to explore a broader, rawer territory.

His works reveal a city we look at without truly seeing. Behind the facades of villas and modern towers in Abidjan, another reality unfolds: that of informal settlements — dense, unstable, intensely alive. A parallel city, invisible to many, yet shaped by lives, tensions, and solidarities.

Overhead views, saturated architectures, improvised electrical networks, overcrowded spaces: Obou maps these territories with an almost obsessive precision. Working on both metal and canvas, he captures the materiality of these environments — corrugated iron, concrete, traces of time — while allowing a vibrant, colorful, deeply human energy to emerge.

These structures, originally conceived as temporary, have endured over time. They tell a story of urban urgency, political transformations, and survival dynamics. They also reveal an unexpected form of beauty : that of adaptation, inventiveness, and life that insists on continuing.

In this exhibition, the figure almost disappears. The mask fades away. And yet, the human presence is everywhere.

At the windows.

Through invisible circulations.

Through connections.

The Invisible City speaks as much about solitude as it does about community. It reveals fragile, threatened spaces, yet deeply structured by mutual support. Here, proximity becomes necessity, solidarity a strategy, and improvisation a form of collective intelligence. The artist does not merely depict a landscape. He reveals what escapes the eye — and compels us to look differently.

Having accompanied Obou Gbais since his student years, LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery has been a close witness to the evolution of his practice. His gaze has also been shaped by the works encountered within the Gallery: the vibrant crowds of Glover, and the dense, precarious architectures of Ndoye Douts’ Medina, whose universe now resonates with Obou’s representation of Locodjro. From these resonances emerges a dynamic and singular visual language.

The Gallery is pleased to open this new chapter with the artist’s journey, part of a continuous collaboration built over time and renewed with every exhibition.