When others manipulate lines and colors with brushes and painting knives, he uses a computer tool to weave shapes and subjects. In a laborious construction begun fifteen years ago, the young man goes through life at the sure pace of a precociously revealed appetite for art, which gives him the opportunity to travel in a vast palette of artistic expression. With the nerve center: digital arts.
Indeed, after a brilliant school and academic course resulting in a Higher Technician's Certificate (BTS) in Audiovisual Communication, at the SIANTOU Higher Institute of Yaoundé in Cameroon in 2004, he will offer himself a few years later (2013), a certifying internship in graphic design, at the Studio “We Work Together” (NTE) in Paris, France. The opportunity is thus given to him to perfect himself in the advertising arts, in particular in graphic and visual creation, also to flirt cheerfully with the digital arts, such as digital drawing and painting. In the same vein, he is illustrated in various creations in fashion design (streetwear), logotype or even furniture design and other interior design.
This atypical journey will take place in a context where the visual arts are essentially combined in classic aesthetic approaches (easel painting, drawing, sculpture and other forms of expression whose substantial presentation is tangible). Journey of a man who defines himself as the "Villadin", a consummate allusion to his early youth, which began in the country lair of the West Cameroon Highlands. The little villager could roam between hills and valleys soaking up the habits and customs that have passed through the ages until he, that he will soon find himself in town, to live new experiences imbued with Western modernism, thus becoming a city person ; a Villadin.
He is Eric TAKUKAM; a villager living in town, as he likes to define himself. Who has built an aesthetic line around digital and graphic design, which combines his apprehension of ancestral values with his perception of the evolving realities of our societies steeped in Western and globalist modernism. In a stylistic hook sailing between expressionism, cubism, the free figuration specific to pop'art and which returns to its minimalist translation of the cultural vestiges (masks, statuary, architecture, clothing and behaviors) of the Bamileke people from which it comes, a detonating resonance.
He uttered his first cry claiming life in this world on May 4, 1983 in Bameka, in the Grassfields. His parents, André TALLA and Jeannette TCHOUGA had probably not imagined that this heap of intelligence of a son was destined for a life as an artist. However, year after year, he will embrace this path, undergoing in passing the influence of illustrious predecessors, like the famous American comic book designer and co-creator of the hit series Danger Girl, J. Scott Campbell, by Keith Haring (American designer, painter and sculptor, one of the precursors of pop'art) or the visual artist of Nigerian origin Laolu SENBANJO who brilliantly stood out through his collaboration on the visual part of the album Lemonade by Beyoncé. So many ingredients that he cheerfully uses to weave his web in a unique way in the world of visual arts.
One thing leading to another, his rigorous and curious character allows him to invest in the mastery of new fields of expression, gravitating around digital art and augmented reality. All of which is why it benefits more and more from an interesting national and international aura, resulting in some major exhibitions here and there. In this case the most recent dated March 18, 2023, that collective one called Exhibition Narrativas (Artly Mix), which took place in Sao Paulo in Brazil or even that in duo with his fellow artist NGAMENI Daybor, in June -July 2022, organized by Annie KADJI Arts Galery (AKAG), under the theme: Digital Spirit. Without going over his hunting list, we can't refrain from mentioning a few honorary prizes housed in his purse, including the prestigious prize of the month LOVE at Westfield by Artivive, in 2023, also that of the Concours d' Huluku art in 2022. He becomes the local advocate of Artivive App. A path that continues inexorably towards even more fruitful horizons.