Charles Badoue (Ivory Coast, 1987) and Harrison Omoyater (Nigeria, 1994) both fled their home countries. “Art is a remedy for loss and pain.”
“Memories of where I grew up slipped out of my mind,” Charles Badoue says in a video accompanying the exhibition he takes part in. While bright colours help mask a dark past, bringing light into the darkness, his paintings also bring repressed memories back to life. A violent conflict in which 800 people died forced him to flee. It was “a massacre by our own people.” Art helps him bear the scars.
The artist belongs to the Guere, a community in western Côte d'Ivoire. Fleeing extreme atrocities, he eventually ended up in Groningen, the Netherlands. Alongside the violence, he incorporates heritage—such as body ornaments, large rings, combs, and masks—into his expressive paintings. Colourful work and dark themes go hand in hand. The layering lies not only in his subjects but also in his use of materials.
His escape, at 19, led to a years-long trek across continents; then art finally brought Omoyater out on top. He spends ten hours a day on his works, full of painted toothpicks and skewers. This is how he processes his traumas, realising it’s possible to create something out of life.
In the accompanying video, the artist smiles as he talks about encountering one drama after another—travelling through Libya, sailing across the ocean, living on the streets, and losing a friend. “What is the way out?” he asks. Visiting an Action store, he found the toothpicks he later painted. Eventually, this led him to making furniture art.
Refugee backgrounds
What does it mean to leave everything behind, and how do you start again? Five talented artists with refugee backgrounds give compelling answers to these questions in the Galatea Art Prize 2025 exhibition on artists with refugee backgrounds at the Dordrechts Museum.
Some already had flourishing careers in their countries of origin. Others discovered and developed their talent only after their flight. What binds the nominated artists is their resilience, the quality of their work, and its artistic layering. The Galatea Art Prize 2025 showcases a mix of disciplines: from colourful paintings to visionary photography. But also: a recreated cabinet wall as a haunted doll's house. And a piano entirely decorated with painted toothpicks—material that happened to be available near an AZC. Besides Badoue and Omoyater, the nominees for the Galatea Art Prize 2025 are: Shamseddin Moriadi (1975, Iran), Daria Khozhai (1994, Ukraine), and Bodran Seredyak (1988, Ukraine).
