About Abdoulaye Konaté

Abdoulaye Konaté is a textile artist, sculptor, painter and installation artist. He studied textiles and painting at the Institut National des Arts de Bamako and the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba. He started as a graphic designer in the national museum in Bamako. Now he leads a number of art schools in Mali, including the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers Multimédia Balla Basseké Kouyaté in Bamako.

With his visual work, Konaté provides commentary on political and ecological matters. His two main themes are the degradation of the Sahel and the impact of AIDS on society. He questions the political, social and economic developments in Mali today and shows how wars, AIDS, human rights, ecological disasters and globalization affect life.

Much of his large-scale work is based on textiles. This out of necessity; the material is more readily available in Mali than paint.

In 2013, Konaté’s textile work Blanc-Blanc-Gris was on display at ART ZUID. It is executed in collage technique and depicts the devastating effects of wars and economic factors. For this sculpture, he used woven and dyed fabrics from Mali.

Works by Abdoulaye Konaté have been shown in numerous international exhibitions, such as Documenta 12 in Kassel (2007), Center Pompidou in Paris, in London and Frankfurt. He has received numerous awards.