YaoFrank chose his artist name as a tribute to his late father who left him too soon.
He is a contemporary painter from the center of the Ivory Coast (bouaké), who was born in Yabaya in the Bas-Sassandra region. Yao spent his childhood in Soubré after being displaced from the 2002 war in Ivory Coast. The Bétés then adopted his family. He was forced to halt his studies due to the uncertainities, until 2015 when he managed to resume and joined the Artistic Education High School (LEA), where he obtained his BAC H1. He later then joined ENBA, the National School of Fine Arts in Abidjan today, and ESAPAD (the higher school of plastic arts in architecture and design), where he graduated with a DEAG (general artistic study diploma), a license in mural art, and a DESA (higher artistic study diploma). His experience with the outside world has not always been easy. Yao had a turbulent childhood, troubled by several events, including social-political crises and inter-ethnic conflicts.