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Annabelle Agbo Godeau
b. 1995
lives and works in Düsseldorf,
Germany

    selected works
    biography
    

selected exhibitions:

    Aperture



︎︎︎ artists

Photo by Jana Buch


Agbo Godeau's practice explores themes of race, identity, and the complexities of representation. Drawing from a diverse range of sources—including cinema, literature, and popular culture—and informed by her mixed heritage (French, German, and Beninese), Agbo Godeau's work examines the intersections of personal and cultural histories, as well as how prescribed narratives and stereotypes shape perceptions of self and others.

Working across painting and installation, Agbo Godeau constructs fragmented narratives that resist resolution, employing visual metaphors such as concealment, revelation, and transformation. Through her layered and meticulous processes, she isolates details from archival materials, film stills, photographs, and found imagery, abstracting them into new contexts and inviting viewers to reconsider their assumptions and associations.

Agbo Godeau's highly rendered paintings create an interplay between clarity and obscurity, often positioning subjects in ambiguous states between presence and absence, familiarity and estrangement. Whether depicting a figure in action or an isolated object, her images evoke a sense of movement and multiplicity, encouraging engagement with the underlying histories and all the possible meanings embedded within.

Born in Paris in 1995, Agbo Godeau obtained her MFA from the Beaux-Arts in 2018. Between 2019 and 2021 she studied under Ellen Gallagher at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where she currently lives and works. Recent exhibitions include In anderen Händen: Highlights der Sammlung Philara in der Miettinen Collection, Berlin (2025); 20 Jahre dHCS-Stipendium, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2024); The 't' is Silent: 8th biennale of Painting, Museum Dondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2022) and Species of space, The Bass Museum, Miami (2022).






curriculum vitae

1995    Born in Paris, France
            Lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany


education

2019 - 2021    Class of Stefen Kürten and Ellen Gallagher, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany

2013 - 2018    MFA, Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France



selected solo exhibitions

2025    Aperture, blank projects, Cape Town

2024    What have you done with her? (Part 2), Alice Amati, London

2024    What have you done with her? (Part one), Moltkerei Werkstatt, Cologne

2023    I won‘t dance, don‘t ask me, The Island club, Limassol

2022    Too good to be true, JVDW, Düsseldorf

2022    La théorie du cygne noir, La cuisine, Galerie Hussenot, Paris

2022    Suspense, TGB Art Projects, Munich

2021    Die eiserne Hand, Galerie Alexandra Romy, Zürich

2021    A spectacular woman, BPA Space, Cologne

2021    Stop searching (I got everything you need), Sonnenundsolche, Düsseldorf



selected group exhibitions

2025    In anderen Händen, Highlights der Sammlung Philara in der Miettinen Collection, Berlin

2025    Reveries of a solitary muse, Galerie Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin

2024    House of Mataré, Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve

2024    Genius Loci XII, Setareh X, Düsseldorf

2024    Self service, TGB projects, Space n.n., Munich

2024    20 Jahre dHCS-Stipendium, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf

2023    Figurative painting in France today (selection), Galerie Peter Kilchmaann, Paris

2023    rundgang.io, 1-06, Berlin

2023    L‘age de raison?, Galerie T&L, Paris

2022    Fragile soil, fertile grounds, UNSSC, Turin

2022    There will never be a beautiful suicide, Pal Project, Paris

2022    8th biennale of Painting, curated by Gaby Ngcobo and Oscar Murillo, Museum Dondt-Dhaenens, Deurle

2022    FACE TO FACE, Museum Haus-Opherdicke, Holzwickede

2022    Dip into the Blue, Maison Touchard, Luxembourg

2022    Species of space, The Bass Museum, Miami

2021    Fireplaces, Révélations Emerige, Paris