Hako Hankson was born in 1968 in Bafang, Cameroon.
Real name Gaston Hako, the self-taught artist was immersed in the traditional culture of West Cameroon and the rituals of his tribe from an early age. His father was a sculptor, and he was raised in a family of notables. Hako Hankson drew his first inspiration from the initiation ritual objects around him, such as masks and statuettes. In the child's eyes, the family home already resembled a museum in miniature, haunted by the spirits of ancestors and nourished by animist beliefs, in particular the sacralization of animals, whose figuration would be constant in the artist's paintings.
While this cultural substrate informs the painter's artistic activity, his painting is not limited to this ethnic background. On the contrary, she reappropriates these childhood reminiscences, divinatory manifestations and sacred images, transforming them into a spontaneous gesture, rediscovering the creative freedom that remains the prerogative of all self-taught artists, resistant to all forms of academicism.
Hako Hankson paints large-format scenes that are at once ancestral and ultra-contemporary, plunging us into a fairytale universe in which we find the myths and beliefs of ancient African civilizations, skirting the boundary between the profane and the sacred.
In 2024, Hako Hankson represented Cameroon at the Venice Biennale. His works have been included in prestigious collections including those of the World Bank (Cameroon), the Fondation Donwahi (Côte d'Ivoire), the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (France), the Fondation H (France), and the Collection Gervanne & Matthias Leridon (France).
Hako Hankson lives and works in Douala, Cameroon.