With a freedom afforded by being away from his native New York, artist Ken Forbes, during his month-long residency in Lagos, approaches a new niche of expression. He continues to use cocoa and coffee as raw materials, which he has worked with as symbols of his African-American identity, now in a narrative that incorporates his experiences and assimilation in Mexico.

From popular culture, he incorporates characters in the form of caricatures. He also uses text to address the viewer more directly; in this way, Ken Forbes' work aims to democratize art. His vision is for his work to be a bridge to the viewer, allowing them to project their emotions and providing a gateway to dialogue and freedom.

In these pieces created in Mexico City, he uses cocoa crayon for the first time. With this new tool, his expression is more forceful and expressionistic. Likewise, the context of a city in which he has no specific references of identity has allowed him to break away from the academic format he had been using with cubist references, seeking a free and gestural imprint of more emotional and less cerebral narratives.

Ken has made good use of this residency, unpretentious and down-to-earth, posing more opportunities and questions, given the space for self-liberation that he sought.

olgaMargarita dávila
Chief curator

.