Thierry Dia is an art lover who has found a balance between his professional activities in the Coffee and Cocoa Council for Côte d’Ivoire and his personal passion for contemporary art. He has been working from almost 20 years in the service of the promotion of young talents in Côte d’Ivoire.
His adventure began by pure chance with Charlaman, a young artist who sold his works with no real enthusiasm in a super market. Thierry Dia wanted to encourage him convinced that he had talent. He offered him a deal to help him to sell about twenty paintings. And that’s the beginning of his art story. Subsequently, Thierry Dia was contacted by other students from the same school of Charlaman who wanted to have support to promote themselves.
So after consulting some friends,Thierry Dia decided to support him in a formal setting: the Grand Prix Guy Nairay was born. Its objective is to overcome the lack of spaces of visibility and enhancement of artists’ productions such as contemporary art museums, centers, galleries, or national spaces of contemporary art. It is held every two years and rewards the ten best young talents in the fields of painting and sculpture and, over the years, photography has been added.
Extremely touched by the creative genius and passion of young artists, he realized that this competition was a great opportunity to open up his perspectives and develop more actions to support artists. His small gallery located at the Cité Lemania in Cocody Vallon began hosting exhibitions. Then he initiated a platform for exchanges and debates around the arts called « Apéro-Arts » and he created an art magazine entitled « Le Guyzagner, mécène de l’art » (The Guyzagner, patron of art) to support the promotion of the visual arts. Carried away by the craze, he moved his premises in 2015 to a creative residence located at the Riviera Bonoumim. The new Galerie Houkami Guyzagn has an outdoor gallery and an indoor gallery called Galerie Mathilde Moreau, a restaurant and a lounge bar and a guest room to welcome artists in residence.
A large range of tools available to young talents, who benefit from a coaching and a space of creativity and promotion in the heart of Abidjan
#SaveThe Date : On February 21, 2018, we will share with you, a portrait of Thierry Dia on the Original Foundation platform : http://www.originalfound.com
It is a great article portraying who Thierry Dia is in Côte d’Ivoire. We need more people like him to promote ART in the continent.
Thank you for your feedback. We will introduce to you a new portrait each month until the end of this year.
And I wish you all my best wishes for 2018 year. And Hope to ear from you soon ! xoxo