Nominee: Mafoya Glèlè Kakaï
Category: Visual Artist of the Year
Country: Benin
Art can be more than an expression of beauty. It can preserve memory, challenge social expectations, explore identity and create space for stories that are often overlooked. For Beninese multidisciplinary artist Mafoya Glèlè Kakaï, creativity is a deeply personal process through which painting, poetry, sculpture and performance become different ways of expressing the complexities of human experience.
Nominated for Visual Artist of the Year at the WAFRIC Awards 2026, Mafoya represents an artistic practice that moves beyond conventional boundaries. Her work draws from her personal experiences, her relationship with her body, her cultural heritage and her reflections on womanhood. Through distinctive visual compositions and an interdisciplinary approach, she continues to explore how art can communicate experiences that words alone may not fully capture.
Born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1996, Mafoya has developed a creative identity that connects introspection with broader conversations about gender, culture, identity and freedom of expression.
An Artistic Journey Rooted in Childhood and Discovery
Mafoya’s relationship with art began long before her professional practice took shape. In her autobiographical account, she recalls drawing as a child, experimenting with homemade colours and creating small artworks using materials available around her.
She also describes making collages from shells and other everyday objects, an early creative instinct that connects with techniques she continues to use in her work.
These childhood experiments helped establish a lasting interest in creating images and objects that express something personal. Rather than following a single artistic language, she has continued to explore different forms, allowing her ideas to determine the medium through which they are expressed.
According to her official biography, Mafoya began creating her first canvases in 2018. Since then, painting has developed alongside her work in poetry, sculpture, performance and curatorial practice.
Her journey illustrates how an artistic identity can evolve through experimentation, reflection and the willingness to explore unfamiliar creative territory.
Beyond the Canvas: A Multidisciplinary Creative Practice
Mafoya describes herself as an artist, poet, performer, sculptor and curator. These disciplines are not isolated activities within her practice; they offer complementary ways of investigating identity and communicating ideas.
Painting allows her to work with colour, texture, form and symbolism. Poetry provides a language for exploring emotions and thoughts, while performance creates a direct relationship between the artist, her body and an audience. Sculpture adds another physical dimension to her exploration of form and expression.
Her use of multiple disciplines reflects a belief that complex personal experiences cannot always be communicated through one medium alone.
This approach is particularly visible in her more recent work, where she has increasingly turned inward, exploring her own experiences rather than observing social issues from a distance.
On her official website, Mafoya describes this evolution as an effort to make her own inner world visible: her perceptions, her body, her neurological experience, her spirituality and her relationship with the natural world.
It is an approach that positions art as both an act of self-discovery and an invitation for others to encounter a perspective different from their own.
Exploring Womanhood, Identity and Social Expectations
A recurring element of Mafoya’s artistic journey is her engagement with women’s experiences and the expectations society places on their bodies and lives.
Her earlier work explored questions of gender inequality, patriarchy and the experiences of women within Beninese society. Rather than treating these issues as distant social questions, she approached them through personal reflection and the visual representation of women’s experiences.
Her series Nyonu Yinyin, presented as a virtual exhibition in 2023, explored what it means to exist as a woman in Beninese society through a collection of seven artworks.
Another project, Corps en mouvement, developed in 2024, comprised five paintings examining the experience of inhabiting a changing female body.
These projects demonstrate how Mafoya uses visual art to create space for reflection on subjects that are intimate, cultural and social at the same time.
Her work does not simply present women as subjects to be observed. It seeks to explore the relationship between identity, lived experience and the social conditions that shape how women see themselves and are seen by others.
Symbols, Textures and a Distinctive Visual Language
Mafoya’s artistic language incorporates colour, abstract compositions, collage and natural or culturally significant materials. Cowrie shells, beads and other elements appear in her practice, contributing texture and symbolic possibilities to her paintings.
These materials help her develop images that invite viewers to look beyond surface appearance and consider the associations attached to the body, femininity, memory and identity.
Her official portfolio includes works such as Périmée (2023), Le sexe faible (2023), Le Voyage (2024), Je mets ce que je veux dans mon utérus (2025) and Au centre, Moi (2025).
The titles themselves point towards themes of bodily autonomy, movement, self-perception and the negotiation of identity. Her use of mixed materials also creates a tactile dimension, allowing the physical qualities of an artwork to contribute to its meaning.
Mafoya has also developed an alter ego that appears in her pictorial universe, characterised by eyes and a mouth shaped like cowrie shells. Through this figure, she explores a version of herself that moves freely within an imagined world without asking permission to exist.
This recurring character forms part of her continuing search for a visual language capable of expressing aspects of her identity that may otherwise remain unseen.
Art as Reflection, Advocacy and Dialogue
Mafoya’s artistic work has developed alongside her engagement with feminist thought and advocacy. She has also worked as a blogger through Agoodojie, a platform focused on feminist knowledge, women’s experiences and social issues.
Her wider creative and community work has included involvement with the Girl Talk programme in Benin, which has provided a space for young women and girls to express themselves and discuss their experiences.
These activities offer context for understanding the questions that inform her art. For Mafoya, creative expression can open conversations about subjects that are often difficult to discuss publicly, including gender expectations, the body and women’s freedom to define themselves.
Her work brings together personal reflection and broader social questions without reducing art to a single message. Instead, it creates room for viewers to encounter different experiences, question familiar assumptions and consider the relationship between individual identity and society.
This intersection of artistic practice and social engagement forms an important part of her public creative identity.
Exhibitions and Recognition Beyond Benin
Mafoya’s work has appeared in exhibitions that connect her practice with wider conversations in contemporary African art.
In May 2024, she participated in Fusion de mémoires, a collective exhibition at Villa Karo in Grand-Popo, Benin, alongside artists working across different approaches and visual traditions.
In 2026, her work and curatorial practice were also connected with international exhibition activity. From 14 January to 8 March 2026, the exhibition Les fleurs ne se taisent pas was presented at Galerie Brulhart in Geneva, Switzerland. The exhibition addressed female genital mutilation and brought together artists whose practices examine violence against women’s bodies while creating space for dialogue, memory and repair. Mafoya was credited as curator.
Later, she participated in Aziza Vaslo, a group exhibition presented at the Institut Français du Bénin from 8 to 30 April 2026. The exhibition brought together four Beninese visual artists: Mafoya, Frigg, Dalcy and Amola Boussou.
These experiences demonstrate different dimensions of her work. Alongside creating individual pieces, she has also contributed to the organisation and framing of exhibitions, helping bring artistic practices into conversation with audiences and with one another.
Her growing involvement in exhibition-making adds another layer to her creative development, connecting the making of art with the ways artworks are presented, interpreted and experienced.
Why Mafoya’s Nomination Matters
The WAFRIC Awards 2026 nomination places Mafoya Glèlè Kakaï among the nominees being recognised in the Visual Artist of the Year category.
Her artistic journey offers several dimensions for appreciation: the development of a distinctive visual language, her exploration of identity and womanhood, her use of multiple creative disciplines and her participation in exhibitions in Benin and abroad.
Her work also highlights the importance of recognising visual artists whose practices extend beyond the production of individual artworks. Through painting, poetry, performance, sculpture and curation, Mafoya explores how creative expression can preserve personal stories, question social expectations and encourage dialogue.
Recognition through an awards platform can help bring greater visibility to artists and introduce their work to audiences who may not yet be familiar with their practice.
For Mafoya, this nomination provides an opportunity to celebrate her ongoing creative journey and the ideas that shape her contribution to contemporary visual art.
Representing Benin at WAFRIC Awards 2026
Benin has a rich and evolving cultural landscape, and contemporary artists continue to contribute to its creative expression through different materials, techniques and perspectives.
Mafoya Glèlè Kakaï brings a multidisciplinary approach to this landscape, combining visual experimentation with personal reflection and engagement with the experiences of women. Her work invites audiences to consider art not only as an object to be viewed, but also as a space where identity, memory, emotion and social questions can meet.
As the WAFRIC Awards 2026 public voting process continues, her nomination offers an opportunity for audiences to discover her work, learn more about her artistic journey and participate in celebrating creative talent from Benin and across West Africa.
Support Mafoya
Mafoya Glèlè Kakaï is nominated for Visual Artist of the Year — Benin, at WAFRIC Awards 2026.
If her creative practice resonates with you, explore her portfolio, share her work and participate in the ongoing public voting through the official WAFRIC Awards voting platform.
Follow WAFRIC Awards for nominee spotlights, voting updates and announcements as the 2026 awards journey continues.
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