Burkina Faso: Malian Artist Seydou Traoré Wins First Prize at the 2026 Ouagadougou International Painting Festival

With the Ouagadougou International Painting Festival (RIPO), the capital of Burkina Faso comes alive every two years with the sounds and colors of painting. The sixth edition, which took place from September 19 to 28 under the theme “Creations in the Making: Art Facing the World’s Challenges and the Changing Digital Ecosystem,” concluded with the First Prize awarded to Malian artist Seydou Traoré. As a result, he will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Lagos from November 5 to 8 as part of CANEX WKND 2026.

The RIPO Prize recognizes the most outstanding work exhibited during these painting events, based on several criteria: the artists’ backgrounds, their artistic approach, color palette, style, and creative boldness. Seydou Traoré’s work was selected from a total of 83 pieces reviewed by the jury, chaired by Léon Nyaba Ouedraogo, an artist and co-founder of the Ouagadougou Sculpture Biennial (BISO). At the same time, this award supports the emerging African art scene.

Seydou Traoré was born in Bamako, where he lives and works. A graduate of the Balla Fasséké Kouyaté Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Crafts (Master’s degree in Visual Arts, 2017), his artistic language is built around a simple yet essential gesture: assembling, sewing, and making materials speak, with fabric as his primary medium. He collects fragments of worn jeans, cotton fabrics, and materials of various colors—each bearing its own story—to create vibrant, textured works that explore collective memory and identity. Each stitch becomes a line, each fiber an emotion, each fabric a memory, a trace, a breath. It is a way of examining our relationship to the world and to consumerism.

Seydou Traoré draws on Africa’s heritage but also embraces an approach focused on ecology and the aesthetics of recycling. He is particularly inspired by the figure of the butterfly. A symbol of metamorphosis, fragility, beauty, and rebirth, the butterfly is, for him, a silent messenger that transcends borders, seasons, and differences. Like the butterfly, he also seeks to create works that speak to the heart, with both lightness and intensity.

Seydou Traoré, “L’Eveil du Regard,” 2026. Fabric collage on canvas, 150 x 150 cm, one of the works exhibited by the artist at RIPO 2026

Seydou Traoré’s work has been exhibited in Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, Burkina Faso, France, and Belgium, and is part of numerous collections.