Exhibition
YEANZI
PHYSIS — Au-delà de la matière
From 4 June 2026 Geneva
In Greek thought, physis speaks of that which emerges of its own accord, what grows, transforms and persists without ever becoming fixed.
It is from this unstable territory that Yéanzi’s work unfolds.
For several years, the Ivorian artist has developed a practice shaped by ongoing research into mythology, social structures and contemporary constructions of identity. His works do not simply reference history; they question the forces that continue to inhabit it.
In PHYSIS, Yéanzi revisits canonical images from Western art history — among them The Birth of Venus, The Creation of Adam and Liberty Leading the People — displacing these familiar narratives into the tensions of the present.
Through a language combining melted plastic, silkscreen and painting, inherited representations begin to fracture, shift and reassemble. What emerges are unstable figures, suspended between individual presence and collective condition, memory and transformation.
Here, mythology is no longer distant.
It survives within systems of power, consumption, image-making and social projection.
Using reclaimed materials, Yéanzi transforms what has been discarded into surfaces charged with contradiction and persistence. The material retains memory. It absorbs the traces of a world marked by excess, fragmentation and perpetual reinvention.
More than a reinterpretation of the past, PHYSIS examines what contemporary societies continue to reproduce and, what those structures, in turn, produce within us.
Presented on Tribe Gallery’s first anniversary, the exhibition marks a decisive moment in the artist’s practice: a space where art no longer merely represents the world but exposes the tensions that shape it.
Born in 1988 in Katiola, Côte d’Ivoire, Yéanzi lives and works between Abidjan and Bingerville. A graduate of the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts d’Abidjan, he has developed over the past decade a distinctive practice centred around melted plastic, silkscreen and reclaimed materials.
His work has been presented internationally, including at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 as part of the Ivorian Pavilion, as well as at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, New York and Marrakech. He has also participated in artist residencies, notably at Fondation Montresso in Marrakech.
Through a practice rooted in mythology, collective memory and contemporary social dynamics, Yéanzi has established himself as one of the leading voices of the contemporary Ivorian art scene.
This evolving trajectory situates Yéanzi’s work within a broader discourse on materiality, ecology, and the politics of visibility, allowing it to resonate equally within institutional frameworks and discerning private collections.
A major exhibition with TRIBE Gallery is scheduled for later this year.
In the meantime, a selection of capsule series is currently available, offering a focused and intimate entry point into the artist’s evolving body of work.
