NıCOLETTı is delighted to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 with a solo exhibition by French artist Josèfa Ntjam (b. 1992).

Coinciding with her participation in the 36th São Paulo Biennial (2025–26) and MOMENTA Biennial in Montreal, Canada (2025–26), Ntjam’s presentation at Art Basel Miami Beach marks a major development in her practice, combining her techniques of sculpture and image-making to create an altarpiece featuring a triptych of photomontages set within a movable Sapele wood structure.

The artwork borrows its form from Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (1490–1500), which Ntjam reinterprets to conjure a speculative universe where figures from anti-colonial movements, African deities, and mythological creatures merge with plants and molecules. Titled Hydro-Diaspora, Ntjam’s work reflects on histories of resistance and interconnected struggles across continents, drawing inspiration from the Tricontinental Conference (La Havana, 1966) – a landmark gathering 82 nations from Asia, Africa, and Latin America under colonial domination. This anti-imperialist coalition brought together revolutionary movements such as the FLN, the Black Panthers, the PCF/UPC, and the Cuba-Congo alliance.

In Hydro-Diaspora, Ntjam explores flows of water, people, and ideas as metaphors for migration, solidarity, and transformation, creating a spiritual and political monument to collective liberation and diasporic resilience across global histories.

On the left panel, Ntjam included archival photographs showing Cameroonian fighters (top-left); and Andrée Blouin (right), a political activist, human rights advocate, and writer from the Central African Republic, alongside documentions of African masks and rituals merging with images of daylilies, flowers produced through processes of hybridisation.

On the central panel,  a photograph of the Black Panthers dominates the composition, which also includes a portrait of Félix-Roland Moumié (the Cameroonian anti-colonialist leader assassinated in 1960); a photograph showing two of Ntjam’s uncles overlaid with a lotus leaf; and a banner reading “Vive l’UPC, Vive le FLN”, a testimony to the political alliance between African countries during colonial struggles. The photomontage also includes a fish/snake created through digital hybridisation and evoking the figure of Nommo, a Dogo spirit whose body is half-human, half-serpent — or shifting from human to serpent depending on regions and narratives.

On the right, a portrait of Patrice Lumumba (top left) – a Congolese politician who symboles imperialist betrayal but also the Tricontinental imaginary that nourished the Black Panthers, the MPLA and other Black movements – is juxtaposed with a photograph showing a wedding  in Cameroon; an archival image of women at work (bottom right); as well as a series of statuettes created through hybridisations of existing African figurines, walking across bubbles of water.

Appearing amid plants and molecules like aqueous memories, these images surface, dissolve, and re-emerge as ghosts, suggesting that revolutionary movements follow the logic of the tide. These ideas are further explored on the outer faces of the triptych, in which Ntjam employs Computer Numerical Control (CNC) engraving to create hybrid forms that fuse mythological animals with representations of ancient divinities.

Intertwining references to historical and natural processes, Hydro-Diaspora explores the spaces of interconnection between species and habitats. In doing so, the artist draws parallels between the strategies employed by natural organisms to survive in hostile environments and the resistance tactics used by marginalized groups to infiltrate and challenged dominant political structures throughout history.

Josèfa Ntjam was born in 1992 in Metz, France, and currently lives and works in Saint-Étienne, France. She studied in Amiens, France, Dakar, Senegal (Cheikh Anta Diop University) and graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art, Bourges, France (2015), and the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art, Paris-Cergy, France (2017).

In 2025, Ntjam is participating in the 36th São Paulo Art Biennial, Brazil (06.09.25 – 11.01.26), as well as MOMENTA Biennial of contemporary art, Montreal, Canada (10.09 – 01.11.25). Her largest exhibition to date, INTRICATIONS, is currently on view at The Institut d’art contemporain – IAC Villeurbanne, FR (03.10.25 – 11.01.26).

Solo exhibitions include swell of spæc(i)es, official collateral event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, commissioned by LAS Foundation, Berlin, Accademia di Belli Arti di Venezia, Venice, IT (2024); LVMH Métiers d’Art, Paris, FR (2024); Fotografiska, New York, USA; Berlin, DE; and Stockholm, SE (2024–25); Fondation Pernod-Ricard, Paris, FR (2023–24); NıCOLETTı, London (2023); The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK (2022); FACT, Liverpool, UK (2022); CAC La Traverse, Alfortville, FR (2022); and Hordaland Art Center, Bergen, NO (2019).

Ntjam’s work and performances have been shown in international museums and exhibitions, including Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK; TBA21, Madrid, ES; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL; Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, FR; LUMA, Arles, FR; Centre Pompidou, Metz, FR; MAMC+ – Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne, FR; Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, USA; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, PT; Radius CCA, Delft, NL; Mucem, Marseille, FR; Africamuseum, Tervuren, BE; MuCAT – Musée des Cultures Contemporaines Adama Toungara, Abidjan, IC; WIELS, Brussels, BE; MAMA, Rotterdam, NE; and the 15th Biennale de Lyon, MAC Lyon, Lyon, FR.

Ntjam’s work is part of the permanent collections of LVMH, Paris, FR; TBA21 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection), Madrid, ES; Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, MA; MAMC+ – Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne, FR; Institut d’Art Contemporain – IAC, Villeurbanne, FR; Fondation H, Montanarivo, MG; Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Paris, FR; Fonds d’art contemporain – Paris Collections, FR; Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, FR; FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris, FR; FRAC MECA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, FR; FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, FR; FRAC Alsace, Sélestat, FR; EIB Institute, Luxemburg; and Artothèque de Strasbourg,