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Exhibition Research Lab is pleased to announce UK-born Paris-based multidisciplinary artist Kuamen as new research resident.

During his two-week research residency, Kuamen will engage with the theme of extraction addressed in ‘What the Mountain Has Seen’, ERL gallery’s current exhibition curated by Dr Christine Eyene.

Focusing on the mask as material production carved from the trees of dense central African forests – an object imbued with spirituality, cultural traditions, and history – Kuamen will research the African masks held in Liverpool collections and explore new processes of mask making, while reflecting on form and symbolism in light of today’s Black diasporic experience.

As a performer, Kuamen has adopted the mask as a key feature of his persona – a hybrid character inspired by traditional African masks but reimagined as a futuristic urban figure, at once ritual object and digital avatar. During his time at ERL, Kuamen will develop a prototype for a new mask/character in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University’s Fab Lab and Fashion sections. He will experiment with textile and ornamentation, digital sketching, short animation, 3D rendering and printing.

As a port city deeply marked by the transatlantic slave trade and home to Britain’s oldest Black community in England, Liverpool provides a unique context for this project. The artist aims to explore how diasporic identities, shaped by colonial histories and cultures of resistance, can project themselves into the future through contemporary technologies.

The research residency will include an Artist Studio set up at ERL gallery, with books on Black culture, music, video, and a conversation open to the public on Thursday 13 November. It will conclude with a restitution in the form of a hybrid installation with the prototype mask, a digital projection, and texts.

This research residency is part of Exhibition Research Lab’s decolonial programme led by Dr Christine Eyene, supported by LJMU’s Enhancing Research Culture Grant.

Exhibition Research Lab Gallery is co-directed by Dr Eyene and Dr James Schofield.

For more information visit www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk/ or contact info@exhibition-research-lab.co.uk.

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BIOGRAPHY

Kuamen (born in London in 1981; lives and works in Aulnay-sous-Bois)

Kuamen is a musician, poet, slammer, rapper, and self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance.

Born in London to a Congolese father and a Mauritian mother who met in Russia, he has lived in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris, for over 25 years. He grew up in the Emmaüs social housing estate, which is home to a large community of residents of African descent. The town of Aulnay-sous-Bois is deeply stigmatised by urban violence and unemployment.

The artist’s origins and place of residence forced him to confront social phenomena such as racism, poverty, segregation, and overconsumption from a very early age. Inspired by American hip-hop culture, which he saw as a reflection of his own experiences in council housing, he began writing poetry through politically engaged music. After obtaining an MBA in international marketing and working for several years in the marketing field, he decided to devote himself entirely to his artistic career.

As a visual artist, Kuamen is currently presenting a solo exhibition entitled ‘Kuamen: Creep to the mic like a phantom’ at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London, until 13 December 2025. His work I Have Also Seen (2025) was performed at ERL Gallery last June. Other projects include ‘Drawing Together 201 Exquisite Corpses’ curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist (2022); commissions and residencies with Fonds de dotation Verrecchia and Musée Rodin (Meudon, France).

His practice and concern for the accessibility of art for all, also manifests through workshops with local communities, young people, and special needs participants with whom he develops social sculptures.

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2025    Kuamen: Creep to the mic like a phantom, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London

2024    Pièce d’Inde et Mouvement Indigo#…, Galerie Paradise, Nantes, France

2023    Ex-poto, Basilique de Saint Denis, Saint Denis, France

2022    Afropeanculture#, Ferme du Vieux Pays, Aulnay sous bois, France

2019    If You Don’t Understand What We Say…Excuse Us And If You Think We Lie Accuse Us, Visual Artists Group Gallery, Los Angeles

Group Exhibitions

2022    État(s) De Matière, Fonds de dotation Verrecchia, Versailles, France

2021    Ali To L.A., Transformative Arts, Los Angeles, USA

2020    Art On My Mind, Galerie Visual Artists Group, Los Angeles, USA

2018    Made In France, Amperand Studio, Miami, USA

2017    Work of Heart Art Show, Gallery 300, Santa Rosa, USA

   Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery, Maison Aimé Césaire, Gennevilliers, France

Residencies

2024    Collaboration on the reinterpretation of urban space in the suburbs with Association La Source-Garouste in partnership with the Rodin Museum, Meudon, France

   Research on the history of slavery in Nantes with Galerie Paradise, Nantes, France

2023    Development of a performance on the topic of the Visible at Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK

2022    Creation of stone sculpture and engraving on limestone at Chateau de La Maye, with Fonds de dotation Verrecchia, Versailles, France