Ouattara Watts Queen of Spades (II)

Ouattara Watts (Côte d'Ivoire, b 1957) Queen of Spades II, 2021 Archival Pigment Print on 305 gram Epson Cold Press Bright White 21 in × 30 1/2 in | 53.3 cm × 77.5 cm Edition of 75 + 10AP $3050 ($3500 framed)   This one of a kind archival pigment print by Côte d’Ivoire visual artist, Ouattara Watts, is a gripping fluid cacophony of shape, shade, and storytelling.     Ouattara Watts’s large-scale canvases are dense with photographs and found objects and incorporate a universal visual language whose cryptic symbols, geometric diagrams, and numerical sequences speak to the artist’s cross-cultural identity. The Ivory-Coast-born artist moved to Paris in 1977 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and joined a tight-knit community of expat West African Francophone artists. While in Paris, he also met Jean-Michel Basquiat, who, impressed by his work, encouraged Watts to move to New York. Their friendship blossomed around a shared interest in African art and spirituality. By the 1990s, Watts