Djakou Kassi Nathalie
Selected Works
Djakou Kassi Nathalie is a Cameroonian ceramicist born in 1975 and living actually in Lagos. Inspired by art since her childhood, it's no surprise Djakou started studio practice in 1998 after six years of study. The same year, she became an instructor in the only art school ( Intitut de Formation Artistique) in Central Africa at Mbalmayo, Cameroon. There, she successfully introduced the "Material Technology" course into the school's curriculum.
In 2004, she was employed by Centre d’Art Appliqué of Mbalmayo, Cameroon as a ceramist and chief manager of the ceramic studio with whom she had local and international exhibitions. By 2011, she became the vice president of the craft association of her local government for 3 years. In 2013, she created a ceramic group DECERAM where she realized a lot of commissions
Coupled with many years of studio practice, Djakou Kassi Nathalie has worked with many renowned artists in their studios and obtained many distinctions, awards, and prizes in and out of Cameroon. She also trained many young artists in Cameroon and Nigeria
Djakou Kassi Nathalie moved to Nigeria in 2015 to continue practicing her art, she has had many exhibitions including the two-man shows twice with Ato Arinze, titled " BEYOND FUNCTIONS " Since 2015 she is a member of Society of Nigerians Artists (SNA) and since 2020 member of Sculptors Association of Nigeria (ScAN)she also participated in many other group shows with many galleries in Lagos and Abuja
For the International Women's Day in March 2018, She had a group exhibition at Wheatbaker Hotel organized by SMO contemporary art gallery, she also participated in a group exhibition with Alexis Galleries in March 2019 for the International Women's Day.Djakou's work was sold during an auction organized by SOGAL (Signature Gallery) in May 2019.
She participated in the 9th China Changchun International Ceramic Symposium and the exhibition in London "SAY MY NAME" in October 2020 with Signature African Art gallery. She was also one of the female artists from Africa for "DEUS EX FEMINA'' exhibition that was held from March to April 2021 with Akka Project art gallery in Dubai as well as a part of the group exhibition in France with ART & EXCEPTION from 11th to 14th of June 2021 and at Grand Palais in Paris France too from 19th May to 18th of June 2022.In 2023 she participated to a group show in Cameroon with Annie kadji gallerie and the recent exhibition in Dubai with Art Connects Women organized by Zee arts gallery. She also participated in many international online exhibitions with @bonartproject, @madlozigallery.Her works appeared in many TV programs , news papers and magazines like " ARTS AND ARTISTS", "CANVAS", "DAILY TRUST " " VANGUARD" ," TVC"...Her works were also acquired by renowned collectors in Nigeria and abroad like HRM Nnaemeka Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, Mr Hakeem Adedeji, Access bank, an Indian collector Mohak Mehta, Nicole Kadji a Cameroonian collector and many others.
She became an official member of GFA (Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria) in December 2023
Her works have been subject to many academic researches and write up by many students and Ph.D.researchers in Africa ( Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Poland, Egypt) and America, University of California Santa Barbara.