Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present Dze ke Dze, a solo exhibition with Cameroonian and Italian artist Patrick Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu. Dze ke Dze, a title drawn from the artist’s mother tongue Medumba, refers to a state of being lost – when one is unsure of which direction to take, or when a choice must be made without certainty. For Tatcheda Yonkeu, Dze ke Dze also signals possibility: a moment of openness, transformation, and self-realization.
Rooted in personal experience, the exhibition reflects on solitude, imagination, and the formative power of creativity. As a child, Tatcheda Yonkeu often found himself alone; drawing became both refuge and companion, a means of inventing relationships and making sense of the world. This period of introspection continues to inform his practice today, as he considers his own life, his relationships, and the invisible forces that bind individuals into a collective whole. Dze ke Dze marks an important achievement for the artist – a recognition of a pivotal moment of clarity within a lifelong process of searching.
Dze ke Dze brings together interconnected bodies of work that reflect Patrick-Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu’s process-driven practice. Central to the exhibition is Omen, a 54-part grid of works created across the changing seasons, from summer into autumn into the beginning of winter. Rooted in a temporal, almost geological understanding of time, the series draws on numerological symbolism – 54 reducing to 9, a number associated with spirituality, gestation, and cycles of becoming. Working in near isolation, Tatcheda Yonkeu approached each work as a fragment of a larger, harmonious whole. Describing his approach as “organic realism,” he seeks to give form to the invisible – dreams, instincts, and imagination –through an intuitive yet disciplined process using paper, natural pigments, and oil. These works function as residues of action, recording time, gesture, and thought. Also featured is Inno a Saffo, a 24-part grid that reflects on his experience of matriarchal traditions in Cameroon, contemporary feminist discourse, and the pressures of modern capitalism and its effect on traditional family values. Drawing from his upbringing, the work considers shifting definitions of womanhood, family, and care. Throughout the exhibition, Tatcheda Yonkeu merges African mystic symbolism, European painting traditions, and Chinese Zen philosophy, translating these influences through a unique, African worldview rooted in ritual, humility, and ancestral knowledge.
Patrick-Joël Tatcheda Yonkeu was born in 1985 in Douala, Cameroon. After studying science at St. Jean Baptiste College in Bangangté, and a brief stint at the University of Dschang, where he further studied mathematics and computer science, Patrick-Joël attended the University of Yaoundé to study Fine Arts. After graduating, he decided to dedicate himself to the arts and moved to Italy, where he studied painting and later earned a scholarship to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. He obtained a BFA in painting in 2013 and received an MFA in 2016 in Visual Arts and completed a research project on Zen in art. After his studies, Patrick-Joël settled in Bologna. There, he continued his path through numerous collaborations between Africa and Italy and by establishing intercultural painting workshops with schools and associations in the Emilia-Romagna region, leaning into his rigorous and diverse research background. Recently, he participated in the exhibition "I IS ANOTHER BE THE OTHER" by Simon Njami at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, Italy, and the 2018 Dakar Biennale, which was highlighted by the New York Times, along with Tatcheda Yonkeu work. He also took part in Manifesta 12 as part of the "Collateral project Art and Globalization," curated by the Danish curator Rikke Jorgensen, along with associate curators Valentina G. Levy and Nadine Bilong. Patrick-Joël lives and works in Bologna, Italy.
