Prof. Henri Kalama Akulez, PhD., born 1973, is the chancellor of the “Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa, DR Congo and holds the first PhD in Fine Arts there. He has been part of said institution since 1996 as student, lecturer, professor and head of the oil painting department. His advanced studies brought him to the prestigious “China Academy of Art” in Hangzhou for eight years. As a painter he has been exhibiting all around the world. His atelier “Kalama-les ateliers réunis” has been pioneering in the promotion of promising artists of the DRC since 2007 and has been changing the local art scene ever since. Henri's main focus as a scholar as well as an artist is on the dissolution of certain stereotypes in what is generally considered as "African" art.