Omar Ba: Destins Communs

Educated first in Senegal and then in Swiss Romandy, Omar Ba is a painter first and foremost, although sculpture, drawing and photography also find their place in his work. The first element that we notice in his paintings is the black background from which the colors of his half-dreamlike, half-realistic scenes spring forth. We also remark how the lightness of his brushstrokes makes any material he depicts seem like a plant fragment, whether real or imaginary. Petals, feathers, leaves, stems and other elements borrowed from nature are placed on the canvas in a lively manner that creates enormous textural variety. The artist continually reinvents his range of motifs. Both canvas and cardboard surfaces provide him with a depth of space, each millimeter of which he fills in to tell the stories that make up his vision of the world. A child of Africa trained in storytelling, the image he builds is faithful to the tradition of emotionally powerful and philosophical narratives. His paintings hold both the power of the unreal and the weight of fact. Behind the bright effusion of color, Ba’s figures and scenes are drawn straight from a history marked by a plethora of political and social issues. Behind the camouflage of each painting lies the complex, wounded, and moving image of contemporary Africa that he shares without reservation as his art exerts its seductive power on the viewer.
The artist’s strength lies in this accessibility, in laying the reality of Africa before the public’s eyes and questioning our “shared destinies” through allegory and metaphor. In Omar Ba’s ontological world, we are all bound together from past to future, giving his paintings universal value.

Born in Senegal in 1977, Omar Ba now divides his time between Dakar and Geneva. Using varying techniques and media, his paintings depict political and social themes with multiple interpretations. Ba’s artistic vocabulary revives both historical and timeless questions while developing a thoroughly contemporary artistic statement. The artist’s iconography makes use of personal metaphors, ancestral references, and hybrid figures. His work rejects didactic narration and seeks to express his unconscious and his symbolic understanding of reality through its enigmatic nature and poetic intensity.

Omar Ba studied at fine arts schools in Dakar as well as in Geneva. In recent years, he has participated in several international group exhibitions, including the 2014 Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the 2014 Dakar Bienniale. His works can be found in many public collections, such as those of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) in France, the Collection Nationale Suisse (Bâle) and the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Omar Ba is represented by Galerie Templon, in Bruxelles and the Wilde Gallery, Geneva.

The exhibition is supported by the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia.
Free admission.
Enquiries/press office: Stéphanie Fischer, stephanie.fischer [​at​] mulhouse.fr

La Kunsthalle Mulhouse is labeled “Center for Contemporary Art of National Interest” and a City of Mulhouse cultural establishment.
With the support from the Regional Cultural Affairs Office of Grand Est—French Ministry of Culture, Region Grand Est and Collectivité européenne d’Alsace.