12 Facts About Meschac Gaba

Meschac Gaba was born on 1961 and is a Beninese conceptual artist based in Rotterdam and Cotonou.

Meschac Gaba has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem and at the 2003 Venice Biennale.

Meschac Gaba had drifted from his training as a painter until a bag of decommissioned money cut into confetti led him to make paintings with the material.

Meschac Gaba held a residency at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie in 1996 for two years.

Meschac Gaba received a Rotterdam space in which he could live and store the work.

When his son requested a more normal house, Meschac Gaba sold and gifted most of the work to the Tate Modern, save for his Library, which Meschac Gaba returned to his hometown.

Around 2013, Meschac Gaba lived half the year in his hometown of Cotonou and the other half in Rotterdam with his wife and son.

Meschac Gaba saw the work as correcting lacks of art education in Africa and African art representation outside the continent.

In-between finishing the Museum and its Tate exhibition, Meschac Gaba presented at the 2003 Venice Biennale and held his first solo show in the United States at the Studio Museum in Harlem, "Tresses", a series of architectural models of New York City and Benin landmarks made from artificial braided hair extensions.

Meschac Gaba worked with a Beninese hair braider to make the sculptures from his photographs.

Meschac Gaba held his first solo gallery show, "Exchange Market", in New York in 2014.

Upstairs, reminiscent of the games room of Meschac Gaba's museum, were four foosball tables and small souvenir sculptures such as hand-painted cricket bats and a miniature billiards table.