Lio-Bravo Bumbakini is a Belgian-born Congolese-American artist who paints in swaths of folkloric imagery and vibrant, abstracted, storytelling. His works consist of paintings, drawings, large-scale murals, photography, short film, mixed media and performative installations.
Lio was born in Matongé, a vibrant historically african-immigrant district in Brussels, Belgium to Congolese immigrants eager to start anew in Europe. At the time - his mother Dr. Niangi Batulukisi, was an art scholar, granted a scholarship to pursue her doctorate in African art history and anthropology in Belgium while working under reknowed African Art Collector, Marc Leo Felix; his father, Jean Bumbakini, a political activist and organizer was an an outspoken opponent of the dictatorship regimes plaguing the DRC and as a result ended up in France seeking asylum. At the age of 8, Lio and his family embarked on their journey to America.
Lio graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a B.A in International Affairs and a minor in French.
Today, Lio's work speaks to the clashes of cultural and individual identities, It speaks to a “new indigenous reality”, a budding spirituality that intertwines the natural world with the metaphysical. He draws heavily on ideas of biophilia—humanity's innate connection to nature.
He's qouted as saying "I believe ART provides a window into the ethereal, the space between the societal, the physical, and the immaterial. It is the door to both past human experiences and it's future manifestation."
You can find Lio bumbling around the Rockies, New York City or occasionally Brussels & Kinshasa where his mother, siblings, and greater family reside to this day.
@liobumba