Okuyi Punu mask, Gabon, c. 1970

Okuyi masks are soft, light-coloured wooden masks bleached with white clay (previously mixed with bone dust). They are the commemorative representation of dead ancestors, male or female. The fact that the masks can be sexed explains the male/female pairings. Punu masks represent idealised ancestor faces. The colour of the mask is genderless; white is a symbol of peace, deities, spirits of the dead and the afterlife. Height: 30 cm Reproduced: Catalogue “Africa Babel: the Art of a Continent”, p.- 176 right
 
Exhibitions:
2022-2024 Island of Fuerteventura “Art Africa: Ancestral Light”. Lighthouse of the Entallada. Cabildo of Fuerteventura.
2021-2022 Panama City. Government of Panama. “Art Africa: the spirit of the ancestors”. Ministry of Culture Headquarters. Casco Viejo.
2019-2020 Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Caja Canarias Foundation. “Africa-Babel: the art of a Continent”. Headquarters Plaza Patriotismo.
2013-2015 Museum of Art of Africa and Oceania (Madao). La Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia.
2005 “Black Africa”, Leather Museum.
2004 “Black Africa”. Caixa Laietana Foundation, Barcelona. Main exhibition hall