Art Collective Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo's painting depicting Nelson Mandela

Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo is an art collective formed in 2018. It investigates West African hand-painted commercial sign culture through portrait paintings executed in the style of beauty parlour advertisements. Currently the collective’s permanent members are Louis Houenoude (painter), Juliette Sossou (producer) and Riiko Sakkinen (artistic director). At the moment Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo is preparing for its first exhibition, which will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as a large commission titled Top 10 African Presidents for Serlachius Museums, Finland.

Juliette Sossou is the producer of Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo. She was born in 1987 in Sé, Benin. Sossou is a singer, actress and restaurateur. She lives and works in Grand-Popo.

Riiko Sakkinen is in charge of the artistic direction of Salon de Peinture Grand-Popo together with Louis. He was born in 1976 in Helsinki. Sakkinen lives in Pepino, Spain, and works as a visual artist.

Houenoude is the collective’s resident painter. He was born in 1981 in Grand-Popo, a small town on the South-West coast of Benin. Houenoude studied painting in Cotonou. He lives and works in the village of Hêvë, just outside of Grand-Popo.

Houenoude started out painting the walls of barber shops for a living. His first portrait series, which he named “Bad Hair Day Leaders”, consists of 14 portraits of today’s world leaders including Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.

Houenoude learned painting with his father, who also painted shop walls for a living. He now paints alongside his own children; his younger son works as his assistant, cleaning his brushes.