Epaphras Toïhen & Nathanaël Vodouhè — Vallois Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: July 3 → 26, 2025

For its final exhibition before the summer break, Galerie Vallois (35 rue de Seine, Paris 6th) presents a striking dialogue between two Beninese artists with singular trajectories: Epaphras Toïhen and Nathanaël Vodouhè. Bound by a profound connection to wood—approached as a living, vibrant, almost sacred material—they each explore, in their own way, the ties between memory, identity, and spirituality. A descendant of a lineage of sculptors, Epaphras Toïhen carves wood with incised striations inspired by traditional African scarification, evoking rites of passage and embodied memory. Self-taught artist Nathanaël Vodouhè creates powerful totems from charred wood, symbols of the tension between life and death, matter and spirit. Deeply rooted in ancestral practices yet resonating with contemporary expression, their works reveal a rare expressive force and a luminous vision of creation.