Richmond Tehe was born in Zorofla (Ivory Coast) in 1997. He graduated from l’Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts of Abidjan in 2022 (Master II, option Painting). He lives and works in Bassam, near Abidjan (Ivory Coast).
Richmond Tehe lets his drawing's framework appear without revealing its secret. Far from hiding its guidelines, he underlines his gesture through hatching. With Richmond, the line is not only the hidden foundation of the drawing, but also the purpose of his artistic identity. His tangled lines seem to weave a hostile and fascinating nest, in which appears a portrait. Within this fragile balance, each line threatens to disrupt the expression of these faces and their sharp eyes, which are portraits of his feelings.
In his « Fragility » series, Richmond works with plastic mats, a woven and colored surface where the community gathers, meets or rests. The artist invests the mat and appropriates its aesthetic by blending the lines of the faces with the colors of the weave. He then exposes his drawing to the free flames that transform the plastic material. Richmond meticulously directs the burning around his drawing until it becomes a fine synthetic lace that uncovers the wooden support. The canvas is then slashed and incised, to reveal the layers under these apparently unstructured portraits. From this uncertain but close contact with the matter comes a great fragility, a vulnerability that the inquisitive gaze of his characters also seems to read inside us.