INGÉNIEUR VANCY @ Olsen: Unfolded

Ingénieur VANCY was born in 1990 in Kinshasa (Congo).

As for many young Africans, imagination and invention was a tactile endeavour. The fabrication of toy cars, for instance was a practice found throughout sub-Saharan Africa in the latter part of the 20^th century (and continues). In part, it served the purpose of self-amusement, but also it created a barter or trading object. The toy racing cars fashioned out of cans, cigarette cartons and pieces of wood, for instance were marketed as far afield as Craft Caravan the cult store in New York City in the 1980s and 90s as well as flea markets in other colonial centres such as Paris and Brussels.

 Vancy’s interaction with this rite of passage led him to embark upon an actual career in mechanics which did not suit his temperament. His introspective creativity diverged from dealing with the steel, to creating representations of mechanical objects. Soon his imagery created curious worlds, cities and an internal universe, any record of which, beyond this suite of drawings, is hard to come by, if it exists. For reasons that are explored in the exhibitions accompanying essay, Why Kinshasa?, these worlds of wild energy and fantastical skyscrapers were a very important part of Congolese Culture.

Vancy is a self taught artist whose inner-vision is, as is of the the case amongst such creative people, described as a “gift of god”. These are his ‘lost drawings’; this suite has hitherto been unseen until this exhibition, first in Sydney and then the 2025 New York Outsider Art Fair.

There is a rawness in the act of drawing that is removed from his more refined paintings. The work demonstrates an unselfconscious line and near automatic vigour in his drawings. 

This exhibition was made possible by the generous curatorial input by the MAMA Collection, Berlin.