Maria Adjovi
Beninese artist. Trained at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Maria Adjovi is a Beninese painter, currently training at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, whose work explores themes of intimacy and spirituality through a personal quest for redemption. After studying at the École Supérieure d’Administration d’Économie et des Métiers de l’Audiovisuel in Benin, she chose to devote herself entirely to painting, determined to forge a distinctive visual language in which her cultural, spiritual and personal influences intersect.
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Her practice is marked by the maternal figure, central to her work. Present both tangibly and symbolically, it embodies transmission, memory and resilience. Her work is enriched by her theological education, reinterpreting religious symbols in order to question her own penitence and her search for absolution.
Through her painting, Maria Adjovi seeks to offer a mirror of her own inner struggles while giving a voice to the silences of existence. Her work is an invitation to deep introspection, a visual journey in which every brushstroke is a trace of her personal path. “When I paint, I am looking for truth. It passes through my crossed gazes, through time slipping away, through the unfolding of my moments of existence.” Through this search, each work becomes a cathartic act in which Maria Adjovi shares her experience and her vision of the world.
Winner of the Prix Weil, awarded by the Amis des Beaux-Arts (Paris, 2024). Nominated for the Prix ellipse 2024. Diptyque grant, Beaux-Arts de Paris. Recent exhibitions: Un bout de ciel bleu, Palais des Études, Beaux-Arts de Paris (2024); Prix ellipse, Maison Rouge, Cotonou (2024); L’Inlassable Gallery, Paris (2023).
Education 2→
- École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
- École supérieure d’administration, d’économie et des métiers de l’audiovisuel, Bénin
Awards 3→
- 2024
- Prix Weil, Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts de ParisBourse Diptyque, Beaux-Arts de ParisFinaliste du Prix ellipse, ellipse art projects, Cotonou
Solo exhibitions 1→
- 2024
- Un bout de ciel bleu, Palais des Études, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris
Group exhibitions 7→
- 2026
- Kith and Kin, Galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris
- 2025
- Les images ne dorment jamais / Imago numquam dormit, avec David Mbuyi, Galerie Nathan Chiche, Vantoux
- 2024
- Exposition des finalistes du Prix ellipse, Maison Rouge, CotonouJeunes et ignorants, Espace Temple, Paris
- 2023
- Bouquet de mars, L’Inlassable Galerie, ParisWoman, Maison Rouge, Cotonou
- 2022
- Youth, Maison Rouge, Cotonou
