The OLYM collection was inspired by the frequent business trips taken to Africa by the collectors who are also brothers and associates for many years. Upon returning from Africa, they found themselves discussing, and sharing their new discoveries and cultural encounters with their wives.
Everything started from their curiosity to knock on the doors of workshops, studios or galleries wherever they went - and by the amazement of what they found each time. They found themselves willing to transmit the plurality and power found emerging from the African art scene, and this is how their collection was born.
The collection starts in Abidjan, and through a desire to tie together different territories and their very diverse artistic practices - from cultural differences to language ones - the collection evolved to celebrate diversity.
Artists from the African continent are starting to be more visible and talked about in the international art scene, yet the conversations around them still represent barely a murmur relative to its potential.
The OLYM collection is built as a log book made up of encounters, dialogues and sensations - an exploration with a common thread tying together in a singular space the universes of distinct creations.
The collection is very much inspired by their family values and the idea of sharing. While in Dakar, the collectors discover the work of Aliou Diack and in Accra the creativity of Eric Gyamfi, they are both fascinated by these works which appeal to them because of their shared values. Taking root in discussions with the artists, gallerists or curators , they seek to explore the deep individual stories emanating from each artist's work.
The collection highlights beauty in all its different manifestations, and an open mindedness which the collectors hope to transmit to their children via this collection.
The collection's ambition is to bring awareness of and act as a relay of African art in the continent via a loan program in partnership with institutions, museums, and other cultural centers. The purpose of this website is to shed light on the artists of the OLYM collection and to illustrate their work, not to show all art works held within the collection.
Be it emerging artists already represented on the international arena, or artists just discovered in their workshops, the interest is the same. Their stories, trajectory, and body of works are the testimony of encounters - the most beautiful aspect of traveling, after all.