Romuald Hazoumé was born in 1962 in Porto Novo, in the Republic of Benin. Hazoumé's work first came to prominence in the U.K. with the inclusion of his witty, tongue-in-cheek "masks" in the Saatchi Gallery's "Out of Africa" show, in 1992. Since then his work has been widely shown in many of the major galleries and museums in Europe and beyond, including the British Museum, the Guggenheim, Bilbao, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, ICP, New York, the V&A Museum, London, etc. The stellar trajectory of Hazoumé's rise during these past fifteen years has catapulted him into the first rank of the international artistic community, marking him out as unique amongst other African contemporary artists.