'I've always used art as a compass to find myself,' says the Cameroonian-born painter, who called his pal Moses Sumney ahead of two major solo exhibitions.
Since his early childhood in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Ludovic Nkoth has always made art to make sense of the world around him. Now that the Paris-based painter finds himself in demand across continents, he’s grappling with the idea of belonging more than ever. After completing a residency with the Académie des Beaux-arts this summer, he’s moved on to two back-to-back solo exhibitions of his rich, satiny portraits of Black life:at Le Corbusier’s airy Maison La Roche in Paris.
NKOTH: I also have to make my studio feel like a home. When I moved to Paris into the first studio, it took me like a month before I started painting. I was buying plants once a week. Whenever I miss home, I go buy a plant and put it in the studio. After doing that, I paint a self-portrait and hang it up. That process starts making me feel a bit more at home.
SUMNEY: I asked the question about vacancy because I do have a little hole, honestly, and it feels a bit insatiable. Sure, I’ll go into a space and get a plant and sage out the demons and it’s my home. Whatever. But my homes are really California, North Carolina, Ghana, and London, and if I could create an ideal home, it would be all of those places as one. And because I can’t live everywhere at once, there’s always this other thing. It’s like—problematic, but—the other woman.
NKOTH: Some parts feel more like home because I can go to a place like Chateau Rouge that mentally takes me to Cameroon. But I don’t think I know anyone that could mirror me in that sense, because my journey has some holes that I don’t know too many people who have gone through. And because I have experienced the whole triangle of Africa, America, and France, I think I’m sensitive to many more things than someone who is fresh off the continent here sees.
SUMNEY: Actually, the reason I moved here was that I didn’t want to speak to no one. I didn’t have friends for the first two years I lived here and all my work was very internal. Now I feel like I need to actually be around people and have sex and hang out.SUMNEY: It’s not popping. I’m not a huge dater anyway, but I think I’m a little too dissimilar for their taste. But I have another question for you.
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