Neals Niat, Belgian-Cameroonian artist, Speaks with Lowercase

Neals Niat’s work is the manifestation of his childhood memories. That’s why he started creating images in monochrome. “To me they were the colors of memories, black and white like in movies. For me, when we think about memories, they’re always black and white in your head,” remarks Neals over an afternoon zoom call. The Brussels-based artist describes the process of starting to create visual images in monochrome as “natural” and the transition to adding pops of subtle color a “challenge.” His current use of pastels is a balance between black and white and color to look like vintage photography. “I want my work to feel like old photography in the 90s, 80s and 70s,” he says. Neals has coined his own term for his striking drawings “I call it the Monochromatic visual metaphor. I would describe my work as a mosaic of monochrome and pastel colors.” His art is work that operates on its own. “My idea is to merge many art mediums together. To go from paper to painting to animation etc.. and really merge everything,” he states.

His piece, Biscuit Football journeys back to the chocolate biscuits that Neals and his friends used to devour after school. Where do memories come from? Naturally, the distorted stories of our childhood and family stay with us, at least in fragments. Neals cites family and old family pictures as being one of the key inspirations behind his artwork’s stories and is one of five children. He spent time at an aunt’s place in London where he wasted no time taking many photographs of her. He is also influenced by African photographers including Malick Sidibé and fellow Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso as well as old school African music videos and movies.

Neats’s first piece of art was a drawing inspired by the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “I was a fan,” he remarks. “I was always drawing when I was younger. I remember my teacher in elementary school told my mum to put me in art school.” Neals did go on to study art, in the form of architecture and is a graduate with a masters in the subject. “I studied architecture in Belgium. It was a tool to help me share these memories. During my studies, I felt that there was a lack of representation of the black individual in visual art. So my work is directly related to this lack that I have identified.” This also has an impact on his artwork as he draws inspiration from architectural collage such as KGDVS or DOGMA and young architect and photographer Alexandra Kpomda.

This architectural influence can be seen across his works, primarily through the anonymity of the characters he draws.“In architecture, when we represent a space we use black silhouettes. It gives life to the project and helps to apprehend the space.” I think I just took this idea and used it in my work. The characters are there to tell the story and define the space. The lack of eyes provides a level of abstraction that allows the viewer to project themselves onto the subject.” Neals explains.

So what is the technique behind these anonymous yet striking visual stories? “I have the idea in my head. I will look at the family portraits or something similar. I sketch on paper first and then I will go to the computer and draw it using Illustrator.” “Sometimes I just draw straight onto the computer. I started my journey as an artist with Autocad, a design and architectural software but I was really restricted with the forms and so I moved to Illustrator which allows me to do more stuff,” Neals mentions. “All of my works are an integral part of a continuous project. They are life scenes to which I add, remove and improve elements in order to enrich them. The idea is that in several years I’ll gather all the works composing the project to form one great work.” Like a storyboard in his mind, Neals’s imaginative scenarios are transformed into vivid digital drawings. “To create a new piece, I need to know what’s going to be next.” When I create a piece I need to know what’s coming next in order to create it.” Sometimes it can take a few days to create something, or a month, even years. For example, I have a drawing that I’ve been working on for three years, I haven’t finished because it doesn’t fit with the other stories yet.”

La Njoka/Petite Madame copyright Neals Niat

This complements his lifestyle where he works according to his mood and level of inspiration. “I’m not the kind of artist who works on new stuff everyday. I’m more of a mood-based person, I’ll start creating something when I’m in the mood. I take walks in the park near my place,” he says. Music is also a place of great inspiration. “Music is life. I wake up with music, I sleep with music and listen to it when I’m creating. I’ll do a quick sketch or write something and go back to it.” Neals previously created an artist book published by Manufactoriel called Life Scenes. In it, he explores “the ties between camfranglais, a popular language used in Cameroon and its tangibility, through illustrations. It is a matter of capturing the image of that language's geography to produce artwork in a playful way. A visual linguistic.” The book is now part of Yale University library. He is also working on a book for children.

His latest series Mapanes Love is a compilation of visual love stories that take place in Cameroon. Neals was born in Paris and moved to his family’s home country of Cameroon when he was 7, where he spent 8 years. “In Cameroon the Mapanes represent a wasteland space where wild and luxuriant nature regains its rights. It is also a discreet space where lovers come to stay away from prying eyes,” he explains. Hence why the stories center on tales between couples. He also portrays the country’s Mbenguiste; natives who live abroad. Neals states how pretending to be a Mbenguiste while dating in Cameroon is popular. “In one of the stories, you have two characters - the guy is dating a girl and is pretending to live in Europe and saying he will take her there. But it’s not true, he’s living in another city in Cameroon but she doesn’t know as they only meet every two to three months. We call this kind of guy a Mbenguiste - a guy who lives abroad (or pretends to) and has more chances of getting girls.”

We wrap up the call by discussing Neals’s hopes for the future. As part of his continuous style of working, Neals wants to continue to explore “new mediums to allow different approaches to my work.” I see my work as a whole, as a continued project. There’s no final point, it can cross into movies, animation, spatial design and furniture,” he stated. In the future, he’d like to have a solo exhibition. “I hope one day to show Mapanes Love as an interactive exhibition and a movie.” It’s no surprise then, that the emergence of immersive storytelling is of interest to him. “My dream exhibition is for people to become the characters in my work. When you come into the exhibition maybe you have 3D glasses that immerse you into the artwork. I’d like people to be able to touch and feel the elements from the paintings, like a real experience. When I finish the series Mapanes Love perhaps it could be an animation and then after the animation it could be a short movie with actors.” A thread sewn through all of his work is culture, his own Black African culture to be specific, especially his Cameroonian roots. “I am influenced by the importance of knowing our culture and preserving it.”

To buy Neals Niat’s artwork, visit Better Shared.

Tali Ramsey is a UK based writer. For more of her work click here.