A self-taught painter, Emmanuel Kavi began with drawing and illustration. In 1987, at 17 years old, he won a national drawing contest in Togo. Progressively, his style evolved towards the abstract. In 2001 he began to exhibit, first in West Africa and then in Europe, where his style is sometimes termed “African cubism.” He works without sketches using materials derived from African soil: pigments, henna, sand, straw and gravel. He places the colours one after another and gradually, as he mixes tools (brushes, knives, fingers) and techniques (erasure, collage, water jet …), his work takes shape. Daily life, human interactions, nature, spirituality and children are his favourite themes. He sometimes includes tribal symbols and signs in his work, especially of the Dogon people of Mali.