Born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 1992, Franck Kemkeng Noah took an interest in drawing at a very early age. He graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts from the Foumban Institute of Fine Arts (IBAF) in his native country. In 2017, he moved to France and took a second Master’s degree, this time in Art Research at the University of Picardy Jules Verne in Amiens.

Kemkeng Noah’s roots in Cameroon’s Bamileke ethnic group and its culture are some of his main sources of inspiration, basing his art research on the works of a number of artists, including Hervé Youmbi, Beatriz Gonzalez, Helio Oiticica and Etienne Martin, and on ‘The Cannibalist Manifesto’ by Oswald de Andrade.

In the past, Kemkeng Noah would paint on pieces of carpet and household objects he found lying in the streets. They provided a new medium for a series of works that function as narrative points in the history of migration. Often labeled ‘hybrid art’, Kemkeng Noah’s work pursues an experimental approach that is essentially characterised by painting. Now, his works take on more of an experimental approach characterised mainly by the exploitation of painting, sculpture, interactive performance and installation. The artist’s aesthetic research, from the heart of which emerge mixed artworks, offers a uniquely vibrant take on the concepts of interculturalism, identity and civilisation. At the centre of his concerns is the fusing of human cultures.

Kemkeng Noah has taken part in many collective and individual exhibitions. In 2022, his work was featured in a collective exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
'Memory Palaces: The creations of Franck Kemkeng Noah', Texas Southern University Museum of Houston, United States of America

2022
‘Cross History’, Es Saadi Palace, Marrakech, Morocco

2019
AAC Gallery in Amiens, France

2015
'All in One and a One in All', Goethe Institut, Cameroon

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
‘Reimagined Futures’ with Wole Lagunju, Franschhoek Creates, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022
‘Summer Flings’, Foreign Agent, Switzerland
‘Art Is Child’s Play’, African Arty, Casablanca, Morocco
‘Sur La Route Des Chefferies Du Cameroun’, Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris, France
‘Visions and Convergences’, Black Liquid Art Gallery, Roma, Italy
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, African Arty, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
‘The Last Days of 2021’, African Arty, Casablanca, Morocco
‘AAGA Annual African Galleries Now’, online edition powered by Artsy, Africa
‘AFRITOPIA’, The Common House of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
Blachère Foundation, Avignon, France

2020
‘The Cabinet’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
'Young Artist', Art Course Gallery, Strasbourg, France

2018
‘Quinzainede Parrainage’, Stéphane Salford Gallery, Marseille, France

2016
'BIMBIA' (memory of slavery and trade in Cameroon), National Museum of Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon
'Hybridity as a Factor of Tolerance', Hilton Hotel, Yaoundé, Cameroon

RESIDENCIES

2023
Texas Southern University Museum of Houston, United States of America