Cameroon

By Anne D’Urso-Rose Cameroon-born artist Efon Elad knows adversity. But, like the manner of folks in his native country, he chooses to approach life as a celebration. Not only life passages, but daily rituals, ordinary moments, scenes of beauty and terror, songs and stories inspire in him a sense of gratitude and jubilation. Many of the paintings in an exhibit now on view at the MATV Gallery, located at Malden’s Media Center, depict moments of life in Cameroon and West Africa where the artist has lived and travelled as a youth. Other paintings are inspired by songs or Biblical stories, which have captivated his imagination. Still others depict places in his adopted homeland in the Boston area, where he has lived for over 30 years, as well as other places that exist only in his mind or memory. Well-educated in his native Cameroon, Elad is fluent in English, French and five African languages and is a lover of literature. His career began in telecommunications at a time when telegrams and Morse code were his specialty. A lost […]