Information on the life of celebrated Congolese painter Jacques Zigoma is difficult to find. Described at times as modernist or surrealist, his work and those of his fellow art students in Brazzaville in the mid 1950s emerged as a leading African artistic vision just as the Congo was on the verge of becoming independent from France. It's known that Zigoma was born in colonial Congo, Africa, in 1931, and died in the People's Republic of the Congo in 1987. He began taking painting lessons under Pierre Lods at the French artist's Ecole des Peinture de Poto-Poto (School of Poto-Poto Paintering) in Brazzaville, and was included in the Museum of Modern Art's Poto-Poto Painters exhibition in 1955/'56; at l'Exposition Universelle, Brussels, 1958; and at the inaugural Festival Mondial des Arts Negres, in Dakar, Senegal, 1966, which prominently featured Zigoma among the Poto-Poto students.

In 2014 Zigoma was included in the exhibition "Modernites Plurielles: 1905 - 1970" at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and in the "D'une rive a l'autre" exhibition at the Quai Branly Museum in Beaubourg. In 2020 a retrospective of his work was held at the Loeve & Co Gallery, Paris, titled "Bestiaires d'aillures: Jacques Zigoma". His work is held in the permanent collection of the Congo Basin Gallery Museum, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo; the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris; and Afrika-Haus Freiberg in Germany.

The Annex Galleries is always interested in expanding the biographies of artists we represent. If you have more to add to our biography of Jacques Zigoma, please contact us.