Pharaoh Kakudji
Pharaoh Kakudji is a French-American artist of Congolese and Spanish descent. Born in Paris in 2000, he lives and works between Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. The artist is participating in the first exhibition of the permanent collection of Reiffers Art Initiatives, titled Les Apparitions.
Exhibition view of "Les Apparitions"
Pharaoh Kakudji, 2025
Exhibition view of "Les Apparitions"
Pharaoh Kakudji, 2025
Pharaoh Kakudji - Pain a Way / Flying Bean part 1, Reiffers Art Center, Paris
Pharaoh Kakudji, 2025Biography
Often working with street posters, Pharaoh Kakudji situates his art in an urban context where the degraded material becomes essential. The choice of medium, initially an economic necessity, has evolved into an aesthetic signature.
His paintings, with a cinematic energy reminiscent of comic books or action films, blend the everyday with the imaginary. His work falls within an introspective and autobiographical figurative style, where the self-portrait becomes a challenge of "being oneself" in a constantly evolving world.
His intimate and expressive works, often inspired by the cultures that have shaped him, depict scenes from his life, both in dreams and in waking moments, addressing the concerns and questions of his generation.
Texts
Dialogue between Pharaoh Kakudji and Eve Therond
— Mentorship Reiffers Art Initiatives 2021
“I started painting on posters when I arrived in New York because I didn't have enough money to buy canvases. The year before, I painted on large sheets of paper at school. In New York, I saw posters glued on the walls, stacked on top of each other, and I had the idea to peel them off to see what I could do with them, because there was no reason not to try, and, more generally, I like to see beauty in the raw and the rough (paper in this case).
And so, one day, I was invited to participate in a group show at the Bowery gallery in early February. I had this large piece of poster that I was waiting to paint. I wanted to wait for the right moment to paint it, because it was my first poster work, and so I painted something on the theme of the exhibition – which was “women expression”. It was my first poster painting.
Painting my friends and myself is one way of expressing some of the issues that my peers face. A way to express what I see and feel in life. I am a witness to our generation, representing what I see in a certain way. I always have something to say through the figuration in my painting, which is often metaphorical.
I would say that life inspires me first: what I see and what I feel outside, but also on my phone, at the movies... well, anything really. And then, I also draw inspiration from the different cultures that I grew up in and with."