Opening the Capsule, 2025, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 224 x 125 x 8 cm, Courtesy Nashira Gallery

Ako Atikossie is a Togolese artist born in 1980 in Zalivè and currently lives and works between Milan and Lomé in Togo.

Atikossie is an “atypical” painter on the contemporary art scene because, far from the prevailing autobiographical personalisms, his research does not place himself and his everyday life at the centre of his work, but rather the investigation and revelation of the most intimate nature of the things that surround human beings.

With an approach more of a scientist than an artist, he studies and shows the viewer the impalpable and invisible physical laws that govern life on planet Earth, those bonds on which everyone’s survival depends and which today are increasingly subject to imbalance due to the actions and behaviors of each of us.

We know that some areas of the planet suffer more than others, including Africa, the native continent of Atikossie. Having come to Italy from Togo to further his artistic studies and learn about the “Western art system” that has always been presented as “unique,” he has been able to open himself to new experiences while maintaining a particular sensitivity to the environment and developing a unique pictorial language with which to denounce, in his paintings, issues such as the indiscriminate exploitation of raw materials and the struggle of states to secure those rare earths that are essential for the production and development of new technologies.

To achieve all this, Atikossie has developed a painting practice based on the juxtaposition of a minimal mark, a dash, which, when repeated thousands of times on the canvas, gives rise to abstract compositions pulsating with color. A simple gesture within everyone’s reach, reminiscent of writing or weaving, requiring the same extended and lengthy execution times, made up of knots and warps in the former, and of strokes and counter-strokes in Atikossie’s practice.

An art rooted in the continent’s traditional crafts and tribal decorations, and as he himself states, it explores the mysteries of nature and matter: “In my research, I explore various orientations of the minus sign, creating geometric shapes, spaces, and dimensions. I consider the “-” stroke to represent the electron, a symbol that helps us understand and investigate the fundamental components of matter. Through my work, I create nonexistent or abstract spaces that aim to evoke the viewer’s intuition regarding the dynamic nature of matter.”

Le opere di Ako Atikossie sono nel contempo semplici e complesse. Opere vive e da vivere.