The Collection

Aimé Mpane is one of the most prominent Congolese artists of his generation, known for his powerful sculptures, wall reliefs, and installations carved in wood with an adze, a traditional African tool. Working between Brussels and Kinshasa, Mpane addresses the enduring legacies of Belgian colonialism, the Mobutu regime, and the cultural identity of contemporary Congo. His brightly painted, rough-hewn portraits of men, women, and children he meets in Kinshasa reflect resilience and modern Congolese life, while his large-scale works examine the fraught relationship between Europe and Africa.

His acclaimed series Le Demoiselle Pende/Masque Bi-face references both traditional Pende masks and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, juxtaposing histories of colonial exploitation, modernism, and prostitution in Kasai Province. In 2018 Mpane was commissioned to create New Breath, or the Burgeoning Congo for the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium, reimagining its Great Rotunda as part of a project to confront the institution’s colonial past.

Mpane’s work has been exhibited internationally at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York; FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco; Brooklyn Museum; and LACMA. Recent solo exhibitions include the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium (2021), Musée Ianchelevici (2017), and the University of Wyoming Art Museum (2016). His works are in the collections of the National Museum of African Art (Washington, D.C.), Brooklyn Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Phillips Collection, and Microsoft Art Collection, among others.