Growing up Nicholle Kobi wished black women weren’t represented as just angry, spiteful or typecast as nannies in movies. She wished black women were used to represent more. She wished she saw more black women who were formidable forces in every sphere of life represented in the media. She knew there were in fact women like this but the media at the time wasn’t doing a good job of highlighting them. The media was fuelling a single story of black women. This single story wasn’t untrue but it made this one story the only story of black women and this, Nicholle found problematic.
She couldn’t write a petition neither could she call a confederacy of movie producers or media stakeholders to correct these projections. She could however draw; she knew she had a gift of using colours and pastel to represent things. So? she harnessed her gift and her art to canvas for the representation of black women in more diverse ways.
The French-Congolese Artist is changing the narrative with her Artistic illustrations. Nicholle who is Kinshasa born and Paris based grew up understanding racism and the exclusion of black people in French society. Her art mostly portrays positive relationships between black people sometimes with varying skin tones and hairstyles through her studio- Maison Nicholle Kobi
Her work has gained acceptance in Brazil, the United Kingdom, United States and South Africa. Her growth as an artist who is challenging media stereotypes has encouraged her to tackle more political issues, such as drawing in honour of Afro-Brazilians where police violence is a thing, drawing controversial images of black women with the Eiffel Tower in the background, drawing a group of black actresses who staged a protest at Cannes for greater representation.
Her Art champions the strength and preponderance of a black woman, foregrounding the beauty in her externals- hair texture, skin colour, curves etc. Nicholle’s art is a cultural phenomenon among women in the African diaspora and we love it!.
