Allouche Gallery is delighted to announce Speaking in Two Tongues, a duo exhibition featuring New York-based artist Logan Sylve and Angolan artist Cristiano Mangovo. Speaking in Two Tongues explores the artistic languages of Sylve and Mangovo, revealing the compelling intersections in their distinct visual narratives.

Logan Sylve, a self-taught artist originally from Louisiana, skillfully threads the needle between capturing outward appearances and revealing internal truths in his vivid canvases. Drawing inspiration from the comic books that captivated his imagination in youth, Sylve crafts elongated manga-like characters that come to life either in grayscale or in bright primary colors. His subjects burst forth in frenetic motion, adorned with exaggerated features such as oversized grinning teeth and expansive oval eyes. Recognized for the deliberate anatomical distortions of his subjects, Sylve seamlessly blends elements of surrealism, expressionism, illustration, and animation in his prolific oeuvre using paint, ink, pencil, sgraffito, and more.

Cristiano Mangovo’s body of work connects fading Angolan traditions with scenes of nature and metropolitan life, offering a poignant narrative of cultural preservation. His body of work, rich with folk symbolism and recurring motifs rooted in nature, ritual, and physiognomy, reflects on the body as a vast planet—a symbol of both past brutality and future resilience. His vibrant paintings depict people and animals in uncon- ventional configurations, often distorted with two or three mouths. Mangovo’s portraits depict at once the immense burden of life as well as the sheer miracle of existence.

Speaking in Two Tongues serves as a reflection on culture, tradition, and the dynamic relationships between individuals and their bodies.

About the artists

Logan Sylve (b. 1995, New Orleans) is a New York-based American contemporary painter and illustrator. Growing up in Louisiana, Sylve began creating art at an early age. Entirely self-taught, Sylve has amassed a large international following of loyal fans and collectors. Sylve read comics such as “Wolverine” and “The Maxx,” finding inspiration in the visual dialogue of comic book art.

Sylve hopes to curate an appreciation of people’s different perspectives on his work. He doesn’t create with a goal in mind but rather tries to encapsulate moments of the human experience in hopes it ripples out to viewers and they consider what it means to live. Sylve’s characters are constantly evolving, though are instantly recognizable for their enormous grinning smiles, huge eyes, and elongated bodies.

Cristiano Mangovo was born in 1982 in Cabinda, Angola, and earned his Degree in Fine Art from Ecole des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with additional training in urban scenography and performance. Growing up as a refugee in the DRC and returning to Angola in 2009, from early on Mangovo was faced with fundamental questions arising directly from the turbulent Angolan society and the world in general. Representing a new generation of socially-focused artists in an awakening and increasingly self-conscious Africa, formed by a country still forging its post and de-colonial identity after years of civil conflict, his multi-faceted work spans painting, sculptures, performance, and design, working towards cogent social commentary with strong psychoanalytical elements.

Mangovo received early recognition for his work, mounting some 40 exhibitions and performances and earning his first post-graduate solo exhibition in 2013 by the Foundation of Art and Culture in Luanda. In 2014, he was awarded the Mirella Antognoli Prize by the Italian Embassy and Alliance Française as well as the prestigious Ensa Arte prize, which sent him into Cite Internationale des Arts residency resulting in a solo exhibition in Paris. He has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions in Portugal, France, Italy, South Africa, Zimbabwe, D.R. Congo, Belgium, and the United States.

He was featured in the Angola Pavilion 2015 Seeds of Memory at Expo Milan, which won the Best Pavilion Prize as well as took part in an individual installation and performances in the international urban Infecting the City Festival in Cape Town in 2016 supported by the Swiss Foundation for Culture. The artist lives and works between Angola and Lisbon, Portugal.