à propos
Diplômée de l’École Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Saint-Etienne en 2010 et d’un Master 2, Art de l’image et du vivant de l’université Paris 1 – La Sorbonne en 2012, Louisa Marajo,(née en Martinique) réalise des installations in situ, mettant en jeu le photographique et provoquant une certaine désorientation visuelle en lien avec la complexité des chaos écologiques, historiques et sociaux que connaît notamment son lieu d’origine, la Martinique, société post-coloniale traversée par les ouragans, la pollution des sols, les sargasses (algues s’accumulant sur les plages) …
Son travail est composé de plusieurs strates et médiums afin d'analyser l’état d’un monde en perpétuelle mutation.
La mer est au cœur de son travail, comme élément de métamorphose liquide et vecteur de mémoires.
Depuis 2018, elle s’intéresse au désastre que représente la prolifération de sargassesnotamment dans la mer des Caraïbes. L’artiste travaille avec ce fléau, le considérant comme un élément de narration nouvelle à développer avec l’océan. Comment matérialiser donc la mer à l’heure du dérèglement climatique ? est l’enjeu de sa pratique.
Ses installations s’accompagnent de plus en plus des textes-poèmes qu’elle écrit comme une autre manière de faire voyager, par la parole et les mots, le regardeur dans son imaginaire multiple.
L’artiste a participé à plusieurs expositions collectives, notamment au Perez Art Museum à Miami en 2019, à la Biennale de Dakar 2022 et 2024, aux Rencontres photographiques de Bamako 2022 et 2026 et à la Biennale Internationale de Sculpture à Ouagadougou en 2023. Son travail est notamment présent dans les collections du CNAP.
Elle vit en région parisienne et retourne régulièrement en Martinique pour travailler directement au contact de la mer.
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Louisa Marajo lived in Martinique until the age of 18. She moved to France to pursue art studies and now lives between Paris and Martinique.
Her multi-media artwork are deeply rooted in the history of Martinique. They question the colonial history of the island, its fragmented identity and the diaspora of its populations while highlighting the current ecological and socio-economic problems of the archipelago. Everything in her work reflects a strong sense of resistance despite the chaos of the compositions. For the artist, the sea perfectly embodies this tension, serving as both a space of gathering and mixing, a bridge between nations, and a source of shipwrecks and dismemberment.
The first book in her hands was a book about Hurricane Hugo, which devastated Guadeloupe in 1989. This, she explains, is the root of her obsession with chaos, wreckage, and fields of ruin. She speaks of a "chaos factory" when she juxtaposes remnants, scars, and debris. However, to this, joy is possible: in this first book, we saw children sitting on the ruins, laughing. It is this complexity and resilience that the artist also aims to express with especially her installations like labyrinths where everything mixes and transforms.
So, as a french caribbean woman, Louisa Marajo questions her own history in order to analyze the state of the changing world where identity is multiple.
Marajo’s work has been included in several group exhibitions, including at the Perez Art Museum in Miami (2019), the Dakar Biennial (2022, 2024), the Bamako Encounters (2022,2026), International Biennial of sculpture in Ouagadougou (BISO) 2023…
HER works are in several private collections ( the blacherr foundation…), and 2 of her artwork are in France’s national collection.
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)
24 March – 6 April 2026: “La solidarité des destins” , Restitution of artist residency, curator Marie Cozette - CRAC Occitanie, Sète, France
May – Sept 2025 : Sargassum Galaxy Acte 2 - Alianza Francesa a Cuba, La havane, Cuba
March – April 2023: An dlo sargas viré !, curator Dénètem Touam-Bona - Tropiques Atrium Scène Nationale, Fort-de-France, Martinique
Sept – Oct 2022: “44° ce pourrait être un rhum arrangé”, Restitution of artist residency at Pollen - Monflanquin, France
Nov 2021: Holy Storm, Conservatoire des Arts - Montigny le Bretonneux, France
May 2021: Feu de moteur, garage Portet (residency with PAHLM) - Palaminy, France
oct 2020–Jan 2021: Oceanic Dust, Galerie Dix9, Paris
October 3-5 2019: Stand B10, Gallery 14n61w, 1-54 Art fair, london
April –may 2017: « Drop Point », Gallery 14n61w, Fort-de-France, Martinique
Sept 2016: « L’ATELIER DYNAMIQUE », gallery VITRINE-65, Paris January
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
(upcoming sept 2026 - 2027): VAN LEVE: sovereign visions of the creole and maroon caribbean and amazonias, curator claire tancons - harvard university alain locke gallery - usa
May – Aug 2026 : «Nou an péyi révé, Traversées de la mangrove», curators Olivier Marboeuf, Tiyi Kalmery, Christelle Clairville, Elisabeth Gustave - Mémorial Acte, Guadeloupe
April – Sept 2026: AFROBLUE, Blachere Foundation, curators Joana Danimbe and Christine Blachère - Bonnieux, France
Jan-April 2026: "FEUX DE JOIE" - Cultural Center Jean Cocteau, curators Marianne Derrien, Thomas Maestro, Luca Avanzini, Les Lilas
feb – May 2025 : group show « Eaux troubles, réfractions Caraïbes » - curator Arden Sherman – CAC Passerelle, Brest, France
Nov – Dec 2024 : group show « On s’arrêtera quand la terre rugira » by guest curators, cindy olohou, kara blackmore, marynet j - DAKAR Biennale - Senegal
Sept 2024 – March 2025:group show HOMO SARGASSUM – Museum of Fine Arts - Tallahassee
March – May 2024: group show – Nominees for the Matsutami Award - INHA, Paris
august– Oct 2023: Kaunas Biennial – Long-distance friendships - curators Alicia Knock and Inga Lace – Lituanie
Oct – Nov 2023: BISO Biennial, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
April - May 2023: Seas, lands and bodies crossed – curator Cécile Bourne-Farrell – La traverse, Marseille
Dec 2022 – Feb 2023: 13th Bamako Encounters (Biennial), curator bonaventure soh bejeng ndikung - Mali
Oct 2022 – Jan 2023: Dust Specks on the Sea…, curator arden sherman - La ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France
May-June 2022: 14th Dakar Biennial, curator malick ndiaye Sénégal
June – Sept 2022: Dust Specks on the Sea…, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France
Nov 2021, Mar 2022: (round 4) Dust Specks on the Sea – San Francisco Art Institute
Mar 7, April 25, 2020: (round 2) Dust Specks on the Sea –curator Arden Sherman - Little Haiti Cultural Complex, Miami
July 18, 2019 – June 7, 2020: The Other Side of Now – curators maria elena ortiz and marsha pearce - Perez Art Museum – Miami
march 2019: Dust Specks on the Sea – curator arden sherman - Hunter East Harlem Gallery – New-York April
May 2016: « Prize winners PIERRE-DAVID WEILL 2016 » – Academy of Arts, Paris
November 2013: LOCAL LINE 13 - Modern Art Museum of Saint-Etienne
EDUCATION
2012 : Master 2 Visual arts - , University Paris 1Panthéon Sorbonne
2010 : DNSEP Art – School of Fine Arts of Saint Etienne (ESADSE)
2009: Silvïa Bächli’s class – Kunstakademie of Karlsruhe (Allemagne)
pRIZE
- Winner TENDER : a Caribbean Arts Regranting Initiative - Mid-career artists – by Fresh Milk Art Platform - 2025
- Winner Eco-design Art Prize 2023, by Art of Change 21 Association
- Finalist Access Art X Prize Africa/Diaspora 2022/2023, by ART X LAGOS Fair
- Nominated for Pierre David Weill Drawing Prize , 2016
WORKSHOP / CONFERENCE / Project (selection)
- may 2026
symposium: the arts in the face of contamined oceanic worlds - organized by dr helene artaud, the art historian caroline ha thuc and the artist lara tabet - MNHN PARIS
- March 2025
symposium “homo sargassum” - FSU MUSEM OF FINE ARTS, tallahassee
(Co-author of this project with tout-monde foundation)
workshop with students at high school victor anicet, martinique
PRESS (selection)
VIDEO CRAC OCCITANIE - youtube - march 2026
article about exhibition at crac occitanie - april 2026
page in the dakar biennale catalogs - 2022 - 2024
pAGE IN THE 13TH BAMAKO ENCOUNTERS CATALOG 2022
article in la revue point contemporain
Page in the perez art musem catalog -THE OTHER SIDE OF NOW - 2019