Ève Zadi, an Ivorian painter, placing her hand on her painting inspired by masks and geometric patterns on August 26, 2026. Photo: Mel AKOI, bird story agency.
From found objects to Afrofuturism, African artists are exploring new ways of incorporating cultural history into contemporary art. Eve Zadi, aka DJEB, is an Ivorian artist using African traditional symbols and modern settings to create new stories and new directions for African art.
By Nahis Regis, bird story agency
Eve Zadi walks into her creative studio, in Bingerville, on the outskirts of Abidjan. dressed in a white T-shirt, her long braids swinging behind her. Paintings, flower pots, mirrors and modern decorations fill the space and a traditional mask displayed against a vibrant background catches the eye.
After obtaining her degree in 2020, Zadi discovered the world of painting almost by chance. After coming across art videos posted online, she began experimenting.
“In 2020, I had just graduated. I had not worked yet, and I saw painting videos on the Internet. It interested me, and I started painting. It was interesting. I bought the materials very quickly.”
Experimentation lead to an increasingly serious attitude to her art.
“The turning point came much later, in 2024, when I decided that I wanted to devote myself to my art 100% and I resigned from my previous job. And since the end of 2024, I have been a full-time artist,” she explained.
Sitting on a sofa surrounded by geometric artworks and paintings in red, blue, and black, she defines a style that incorporates mirrors, flower pots, and other decorative items. Zadi explained that she wants her work to be part of everyday life rather than being restricted to traditional art venues.
African artitsts are increasingly turning to photography, installation, cinema, textiles, or digital media and are turning to cultural influences to reinterpret the past via contemporary experiences. Masks, textiles, patterns, and other cultural symbols can serve as beginning points for discussions about identity, memory, and contemporary representations of African culture.
Zadi also wants her work to be part of people’s daily lives, especially in Côte d’Ivoire. Her objective is to see her designs in homes, while also exploring methods to apply them to clothing and other products.
African references are important to how DJEB produces her pieces. She draws on masks, bogolan (taditional textiles), and traditional patterns, modifying them to her own visual language rather than just recreating them.
“I use African patterns because I see them as a language, a language of memory, identity and transmission. Masks, bogolan and ink patterns tell a story. But I reinterpret them through my own universe.”
Her decision to make a career out of her painting comes at a time when many artists in Côte d’Ivoire and around Africa continue to struggle to find work.
The impact of the continent’s cultural and creative sectors is similarly difficult to quantify. In August 2026, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics emphasized the importance of improved and more comparable data on the sector, notably its role in employment, economic growth, and sustainable development.
However, Across the continent, artists have pushed the frontiers of what African contemporary art may look like. El Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist, creates large-scale sculptures out of waste materials like bottle caps and metal, whereas Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare explores problems of identity and cultural interchange through textiles and similarities to colonial history.
South African artist William Kentridge has used drawing, animation, and video to explore history and memory, whereas Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu has used collage, sculpture, film, and other media to investigate identity, gender, and African and diasporic experiences. Their techniques differ, but collectively they illustrate the diversity of modern African art, in which artists rely on histories and cultures while experimenting with new forms and ideas.
Multidisciplinary artist and founder of Poegnan, Cris Douty, says support from the people around an artist can influence whether they are able to pursue that path.
“The main obstacle for artists here is not exporting their work, because African art is very present in Europe, in quite a few places, among collectors and all that. But for this art to actually be exported, we need to encourage artists here.”
He says that support needs to begin close to home, particularly for artists trying to establish themselves.
“And here, at the family level as well as among relatives and friends, we do not always get the support we expect. When you say you are an artist, people may look at you strangely. If you say you want to attend an art school, they tell you that you want to ruin your life. Yet quite a few people have succeeded in art. And even in Côte d’Ivoire, for example, Aboudia and many other painters have shown that art is really a good path. So it is really the support around us, from our relatives and those close to us, that can make the difference.”
DJEB’s work has also found recognition among other artists in Côte d’Ivoire. Painter Adou Grâce Marie-Eulalie says she identifies with the way DJEB incorporates African identity into her work.
“I saw myself in DJEB’s work, particularly in the use of African symbols. I can see that she incorporates a lot of her African identity into her art. That is something I really like. I really liked it, and I saw that we were going in the same direction, in that African space.”
She says the way DJEB translates those references into her own work is what makes the approach stand out to her.
“I think it is really well executed, very well done and also very inspiring.”
DJEB’s desire to expand her work beyond Côte d’Ivoire comes as the worldwide market for creative work grows. According to UN Trade and Development, creative services exports reached $1.7 trillion in 2024, representing for one-fifth of global services trade.
In Bingerville, Zadi continues to develop her work while building a career around the visual language she has created. Her paintings and objects draw on African symbols while taking forms that can be placed in homes and other everyday spaces.
Her ambition now extends beyond Côte d’Ivoire. She wants her work to reach galleries and homes elsewhere while continuing to develop ways of bringing African references into contemporary art.
For DJEB, each painting, mirror and object becomes a way of telling a part of contemporary Africa.
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