The DLR Bridge ion the River Tilda (2012) Photography by Alphonse Mpeke

Mpeke Alphonse is an African born Cameroonian; the second child of a family of five. He immigrated to England in 1997 from Belgium (Liège) and France (Paris) where he spent a major part of his life.

He lives in a Suburb of East London.In order to express himself and explore his own fantasies and freedom, he used brushes, knifes, spatulas, crayons, canvas, and acrylics and oils colours. This natural talent and love for painting was exercised since the age of 5.

After the divorce of his parents when he was 9, he plunged in an intensive struggling moment of his life. During those difficult years Mpeke drew, painted and wrote in order to escape the difficult reality of his life. At 17, he discovered through drawing, painting and writing poetry a way of escaping, surviving and recovering from his inner side childhood wounds. Painting is first of all an expression of liberation for him. Also a powerful therapy against his personal moments of frustration and doubts.

His imagery goes beyond the overtly social and contemporary environment where he has always been living. He conveys a remarkable dynamic of movement, atmosphere and energy within each of his images. Profound and intensely emotional, he approaches subjects and lifts the sail of certain mystified aspects of human condition. His abstracts works are pure outcomes of his fantasies. There is no limitations or boundaries in Mpeke’s imaginary or creation. A painter in his point of view should be free to express existing or perceived forms and colours in his own way. As far as Mpeke’s work is concerned, the originality of his paintings reveals a level of maturity and freedom to explore in order to stimulate our interrogations on the real sense of oneself.

He spends a couple of times at the Royal Fine Art Academy of Liège in Belgium (1993). The same year he won a collective first price of photography and painting organised by the Belgian HCR, (High Commission for Refugees) untitled ‘loin de ma maison (far from my home).

Nevertheless, this natural talented fine-artist has just begun what will be one of the most remarkable work of an imaginative mind.

• Nationality: UNITED KINGDOM
• Date of birth : 1976
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary British Artists