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The French American collector and jewelry designer Catherine Sarr, creator of the Almasika assortment, and her husband Mamadou-Abou Sarr are main supporters of Black artists on each side of the Atlantic. Their Sarr Assortment contains works by rising and established artists reminiscent of Carrie Mae Weems, Lonnie Graham, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Dawoud Bey, Leslie Hewitt and Lina Iris Viktor, and funds the annual Sarr Prize (a partnership with the Beaux-Arts de Paris artwork faculty and Villa Albertine, a French authorities establishment selling creative trade between France and the US). The prize provides €5,000 to 3 present college students at Beaux-Arts and awards one in all them a month-long residency in Chicago. Final yr’s winners had been the Algeria-born painter Abdelhak Benallou, the French video artist Jérémie Danon and the Ecuadorian sculptor Sofía Salazar Rosales.
The Artwork Newspaper: What was the primary work you purchased?
Catherine Sarr: The primary piece in our assortment was one acquired in Gabon round 20 years in the past. It’s a phenomenal sculpture made from a stone known as Mbigou. Mbigou is a small area in Gabon recognized for producing pure stone with gray tones, hints of inexperienced and garnet that givesan ethereal glow to the polished floor of the sculptures.
What was your most up-to-date buy?
My most up-to-date buy was from Abdelhak Benallou, a Paris-based painter and a 2022 laureate of the Sarr Prize. His work is commonly impressed by scenes from on a regular basis life and displays on social behaviours and relationships inside society as we speak, all whereas taking part in with contrasts between mild and darkish in his figurative compositions. I stay up for seeing how Benallou’s Sarr Prize residency with Villa Albertine this September will enable him a vital second of reflection to allow him to flesh out his apply.
If your home was on fireplace, which work would you save?
Tribal Marks Collection III by Babajide Olatunji, a Nigerian photorealistic painter, holds a particular place in our residence.
If cash had been no object, what can be your dream buy?
On the prime of my listing can be a piece by Mark Bradford. I’m fascinated by his summary, large-scale works that mix collage, portray and scraps with an inventive language all his personal. His social engagement apply additionally speaks to the ethos of our personal assortment.
Which work do you remorse not shopping for if you had the prospect?
I had the chance to accumulate a sculpture from Ben Enwonwu, a Nigerian painter and sculptor who was such an influential artist of the twentieth century, creating elevated visibility for contemporary African artwork. I used to be fairly upset with myself that I didn’t take it.
What’s the most stunning place you’ve got displayed a piece?
Toilet—I received’t say the artists!
Which artist, useless or alive, would you invite to your dream feast?
Alma Thomas would have a seat at my dream feast. I love her fascinating work, the exuberant color and luminous kind in her contemplative work, and her lyrical illustration of pure kinds that will make for a philosophical dialog.
What’s the very best amassing recommendation you’vebeen given?
The very best recommendation I’ve been given is to gather artwork with ardour, function and values.
What was your favorite exhibition that you just noticed in Chicago not too long ago?
Most not too long ago was Hauntology: Ghostly Issues at Mariane Ibrahim. The exhibition, curated by the Nigerian British curator Aindrea Emelife, explored the concepts of Black womanhood by uniting the numerous views of feminine artists from Africa and the diaspora.
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