Boubou Niang, who works as Boubou Design, is a Senegalese painter known for two things: he paints portraits upside down, and he rarely uses a brush. Made in Shoreditch profiled him twice in 2021. This page combines both pieces.
Who he is
Niang was born on 18 August 1994 in Niomiré, Senegal, according to Made in Shoreditch’s 2021 profile. As a boy he drew on jerseys and sheets for village events and designed emblems for local businesses. At 14 he moved to Turin to live with his uncle, finished secondary school there and, at 18, joined a vocational school specialising in multimedia. He was later based in Senegal again.
How he paints
Niang paints portraits upside down and turns the canvas the right way up to reveal them. He told teachers that what looks sideways or flipped to others looks normal to him, and he finds working inverted the fastest way to paint.
The tools usually relate to the subject. Made in Shoreditch reported that he painted Serena Williams with a tennis racket and ball, Cardi B with his ear, and an EndSARS work, about police brutality in Nigeria, with a Nigerian flag. Tributes to Kobe Bryant and Chadwick Boseman used a basketball backboard and a bouquet of roses.
Social media
His audience is mainly online, through time-lapse videos of the process. In 2021 he had more than two million followers. His Instagram account is @bouboudesign_.
Influences
In Turin he met Giorgio Maria Marengo of the Forssano Gallery, his art history teacher, and the restorer Sylvia Forsanero, all of whom Made in Shoreditch’s profile credits with shaping his work.
More artists from the archive
Other artists Made in Shoreditch has interviewed include the sculptor Ahuva Zeloof and Rebecca Walker. For fifteen years of the site’s interviews, see Fifteen years of Shoreditch creatives.
Facts drawn from Made in Shoreditch’s February and September 2021 articles on Boubou Niang.