Lass

Alhassane Konté, known as Lass, is a Malian painter and sculptor whose work sensitively explores the connections between humans, nature, and memory. Born in 1993 in Kodié, a Soninké village in the Kayes region, he grew up in an environment where the land and the elements shaped daily life. His childhood, marked by herding livestock alongside his mother, fostered a deep connection with nature—an anchor that would leave a lasting imprint on his artistic approach.

But his early years were also defined by a sudden rupture: the loss of his mother at the age of seven. This painful event prematurely exposed him to the realities of adulthood while strengthening his attachment to memory and childhood. This duality between innocence and hardship is central to his work. Childhood is not merely a recurring theme; it becomes a source of energy, a space of resistance against the harshness of the adult world. For Lass, "all change begins with children"—they embody the hope of a world reconciled with nature, a possible balance between modernity and roots. His paintings are inhabited by youthful silhouettes bathed in light, moving through vast and silent landscapes, far from urban chaos. These figures interact with animals, protect fragile flowers, and surrender to contemplation. They seem suspended in an undefined time, as if searching for a lost paradise.

This intimate connection between childhood and nature is also reflected in his choice of materials. Lass incorporates wood shavings and sawdust recovered from carpentry workshops, giving them a second life. This artistic and ecological gesture reflects a deep respect for materials and a desire to re-enchant what seems destined for oblivion. Through this approach, his works exude a tactile and organic presence. Between abstraction and figuration, he develops a visual language imbued with softness and poetry. His forms float, elusive, like fragments of memories resurfacing from the past.

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Before fully dedicating himself to art, Lass initially studied accounting. However, he soon realized that his true language lay elsewhere. He joined the National Institute of Arts in Bamako, where he trained in sculpture, and later continued his studies at the Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Crafts Balla Fasséké Kouyaté. There, he refined his artistic language and experimented with various techniques, blending painting, sculpture, and digital arts. Influenced by major figures such as Amadou Sanogo, Soly Cissé, and Barthélémy Toguo, he developed a practice that bridges figuration and abstraction, where each work becomes a space for dialogue between past and present, reality and dream.

Since 2018, his work has gained recognition beyond Mali. As a laureate of the Mali-European Union Cooperation contest, he exhibited at the National Museum of Mali and joined the Tim’Arts collective, a space for exchange and experimentation. In 2019, his first solo exhibition, MicroMéga, at Villa Soudan in Bamako, marked a turning point. From then on, he participated in exhibitions across Africa and internationally: in France (Galerie Chauvy, Paris), Côte d'Ivoire (LouiSimone Guirandou Gallery, Abidjan), Senegal (Galerie Mémoires Africaines, Saly), Morocco (Centre Montevideo, Marrakech), and Switzerland (Ilan Design, Geneva). In 2023, he unveiled Le Paradis Retrouvé at Jaal Riad Resort in Marrakech, a series where childhood becomes both refuge and the promise of a reimagined world.

Alongside his exhibitions, he has participated in numerous artist residencies, including at the Blachère Foundation and in Congo-Brazzaville, continuously enriching his artistic vocabulary. Today, Lass tirelessly pursues his exploration of memory and identity, striving to capture that fragile light that connects humans to nature, individuals to their history.