Roméo Mivekannin - Spleen

For this year’s Gallery Weekend, Galerie Barbara Thumm is proud to present Roméo Mivekannin’ssecond solo show at the gallery.

Mivekannin reexamines the works of European male painters like Jean-Léon Gérôme or Eugène Delacroix, among others, who depicted the “Orient” through highly theatricalized scenes, portraying women and subjects as eroticized objects of desire or symbols of subjugation. Mivekannin meticulously replicates the ornate details of the original paintings, including their references to Islamic architecture, geometric patterns, floral motifs, and sumptuous textiles. 
Mivekannin’s free-hanging canvases carry profound material and spiritual resonance. Created on old bedsheets, soaked in elixir baths informed by voodoo rituals rooted in the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern-day Benin), his works are imbued with layers of cultural and ancestral meaning.