Art lets me express both my joy and my anger at society, and speak of the environment that shapes our daily lives.
Franco Ndiba (born Ngoh Zick Ndiba Francis, 1983, Douala, Cameroon) discovered a passion for drawing and colour as a child. In the early 2000s, while working in a small fishmonger's shop in a district of Douala, he met the artist Nga Daybor, an encounter that led him in 2003 to devote himself to art: for four years he trained in Daybor's graphic studio, observing his work and learning the techniques of screen printing, painting and drawing. Art became for him a means to express both joy and anger at everything that shapes society, and a medium through which to speak of the environment and of the forces that influence daily life for better or worse.
Ndiba's early path was rooted in the associative and pedagogical life of the Cameroonian scene. He painted live for a television programme in 2004, and within the artists' collective Futur'Arts, where he served as vice-president, he worked as trainer and facilitator of visual arts workshops for children and adults. In 2007 he was selected for the Rencar España workshop in Douala, organised by the Spanish Embassy in Cameroon and led by the Cameroonian artists Hervé Youmbi, Joe Kessi and Louis Epée and the Congolese Francis Tondo; the same year he produced his first paintings on wood and took part in his first thematic group exhibition, for Cameroon's national day, the beginning of a long artistic career.
From 2017 to 2021 he worked as principal assistant in the Mental Studio of the artist Ajarb Bernard Ategwa, an experience that led to a three-month residency for his first international solo exhibition at Jack Bell Gallery, London, and to his debut at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in the same year. Since then Ndiba has held solo exhibitions at Jack Bell Gallery, London, "État d'esprit" (2021), "Kongossa" (2022) and "Lieu du rendez-vous" (2023), at the Annie Kadji Gallery, Douala ("Introspection", 2022), and with Federicoruiarte Contemporanea, Milan, "Franco Ndiba et la scène artistique de Douala" (2025) and a solo project at Casa Sull'Albero, Lecco (2026). He has taken part in 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2021, 2022), in Milan Art Week (2026), and in numerous group exhibitions in Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, France and Italy, from "The Last Picture Show" (Gondwana), presented at the UNESCO Palace in Paris and in Lagos, to the Salon du Design Italien at the Musée National, Yaoundé. In 2024 seven of his works were produced as limited editions of over 2,500 pieces by Lumas Gallery Art Editions. He lives and works in Douala.