Méné

Méné: Ivorian Surreal Landscapes, Ancestral Memory and Ecological Imagination

Méné, born Ange Martial Méné in 1977 in Côte d’Ivoire, is an Ivorian contemporary artist whose paintings bring together dreamlike landscapes, ancestral signs, vegetal forms, masks, constellations and symbolic figures. His work moves between abstraction and figuration, creating poetic worlds where nature, memory and spiritual imagination are inseparable.

His practice occupies a singular position within contemporary African art. Rather than centring the portrait, Méné turns toward the landscape: not only the physical landscape, but also the inner landscape that appears through dreams, myths, ecological anxiety and inherited forms. His paintings suggest a world where visible and invisible forces remain closely connected.

View available works by Méné ›

Dream Landscapes and Contemporary Surreal Imagination

Méné’s paintings are often approached through the language of surreal imagination, but his work does not simply repeat a European art-historical model. His visual universe sometimes recalls Miró or the experimental compositions of Dau al Set, yet it remains grounded in his own symbolic vocabulary, shaped by Côte d’Ivoire, West African visual cultures, dreams, constellations and environmental memory.

His compositions create spaces without conventional perspective or linear escape. Forms float, connect, transform and reappear, allowing the viewer to move freely across the canvas. In these dreamlike territories, plants, animals, signs, masks and bodies become part of a larger constellation of meaning.

Ancestral Signs, Cave Art and the Wild

One of the most distinctive aspects of Méné’s work is its connection to ancestral forms of image-making. Cave art is an important source of reflection for the artist, not as something to imitate, but as a way of thinking about origin, ritual, vision and the discovery of form. His paintings carry something initiatory: a faith in the wild, in the unseen, and in the symbolic power of the image.

This ancestral dimension appears through lines, signs, animal presences, mask-like forms, stitched or woven references and compositions that seem to belong to both memory and invention. Méné’s work creates a bridge between ancient visual languages and the present moment.

Ecology, Extraction and the Fragility of the Earth

Beneath the poetic surface of Méné’s paintings lies a strong ecological consciousness. His work speaks of overexploitation, desiccation, extraction and the damage inflicted on the planet. Nature is not treated as decoration; it is a living field of conflict, memory and possible repair.

In this sense, Méné’s paintings are both dreamlike and urgent. Forests, roots, vegetal structures and cosmic forms become signs of resistance against the depletion of the earth. The work suggests that imagination can be a way of preserving what is fragile, threatened or invisible.

Sankofa, Return and the Preservation of Sources

The idea of return is central to Méné’s practice. His exhibition Sankofa: Le Retour aux Sources, presented at OH Gallery in Dakar, expressed a desire to preserve the world while reconnecting with nature, tradition, craft and ancestral knowledge. In this context, the forest becomes both subject and refuge: a place where painting can recover forms of wisdom that modernity risks forgetting.

Méné’s work often suggests that the future depends on a renewed attention to origin. This is not nostalgia, but a contemporary form of awareness. His paintings ask how inherited knowledge, spiritual imagination and ecological responsibility might remain active in the present.

Selected Exhibitions, Art Fairs and Collections

Méné’s solo exhibitions include Dream World at OOA Gallery, Barcelona; Terre des Hommes at OOA Gallery, Barcelona; Sankofa: Le Retour aux Sources at OH Gallery, Dakar; Shaping Dreams at African Art Beats, Washington DC; Le monde de Méné at Gallery Amani, Abidjan and AKAA OFF; Trace de vie and Humaniste at OH Gallery, Dakar; and a 2025 presentation at the Katzen Art Center in Washington DC.

His work has also been presented in group exhibitions and art fairs including Origins & Connections at OOA Gallery; AFROVISION: The Art & Fashion Experience with OOA Gallery; Luxembourg Art Week; 1-54 Marrakech; Investec Cape Town Art Fair; AKAA Paris; Dak’Art OFF; and exhibitions in Abidjan, Dakar, Washington DC, Barcelona, Benasque and Paris. His growing visibility in the United States also connects with broader developments discussed in OOA Gallery’s insight on the rise of contemporary African art collectors in the United States.

His work is held in private collections, museums and foundations including the collection of H.M. King Mohammed VI of Morocco, SODIREP in Abidjan, EIFFAGE in Dakar, IFCIC in Paris, Fondation Cherkaoui in Tangier, as well as private collections in Japan and Taiwan.

Available Works

Explore a selection of available works by Méné at OOA Gallery, including paintings that explore dream landscapes, ancestral signs, ecological memory, masks, constellations and contemporary Ivorian imagination.