Wilfried Mbida (Cameroon, 1990)

Madeleine Wilfried Mbida is a visual artist who lives and works in Douala. Graduated with a Masters Degree in Plastic Arts and Art History in painting, Mbida learned alongside artists such as Hervé Youmbi, Jean Jacques Kante, and Herve Noutchoua.

After corporate commissions, Mbida started painting portraits and interiors of family homes, in which the decor invites the viewer on a journey through memory lane, universalizing both time and space. Her recent work echoes concerns of artists whose work has been described as social expressionism.

Her experience as an artist has been enriched by several group exhibitions, notably at Le Printemps de Toulouse, at Contemporary Art Gallery of Yaoundé, Art 2017 at Espace doual’art, Urbanitudes at RAVY (Visual Arts Meetings of Yaoundé), the New Art Exchange in the U.K. and Newwar to Bandjoun station, the “Kédé Ndap” exhibition at the French Institute of Yaoundé. Wilfried Mbida participated in the residence at SAVVY Contemporary in collaboration with The Forestin Cameroon, and she has recently been selected for the Biennial of Casablanca.

Deeply rooted in the tradition of black figuration, Mbida's paintings explore silence and abscence through the depiction of interiors and their inhabitants. Similar to the cinematic approach of off-screen composition, she portrays individuals in isolation of external influences which only transpire through suggested imagined narratives.

WILFRIED MBIDA

1990

CAMEROON

Lady Widower Mbida Marie Thérèse

2020

Phosphorous and Acrylic on Canvas

130 x 100 cm

WILFRIED MBIDA

1990

CAMEROON

In Miami II

2023

Acrylic, Oil Pastels and Collage on Canvas

152 x 122 cm