Rising star of African art hits colonialism, tyranny and beauty of black

Bambilor, Senegal – AFP

In a serene studio filled with birdsong, Omar Ba takes off his shoes and gets down on his hands and knees. Then the renowned Senegalese artist begins to paint a five-metre-long canvas a deep, dark shade of black.

This is how Ba, a rising star in the world of contemporary African art, starts most of his works, which question the state of the world and Africa’s place in it.

Ba, 45, is a top sensation at the 14th Dakar Biennale, which opened Thursday. His work touches on colonialism, violence, but also hope.

“We see the colour white as the neutral colour, the pure colour, the innocent colour,” he said. “Black is always associated with what is dirty, what is dark … and that can affect the person who lives these cliches.”

Ba has 20 pieces currently on display at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, and an exhibition opening in New York in September. In November, the Baltimore Museum of Art will host a retrospective of his work.

Since his first exhibition in Switzerland in 2010, Ba, who now lives between Senegal, Brussels and Geneva, has also exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

For the past few years, he has worked from the peace and quiet of his Bambilor studio, in the middle of a mango plantation, an hour’s drive from Dakar, sharing the land with cows, ducks and exotic flowers.

Highly sought-after by collectors, Ba is represented by the Templon Gallery, which has previously exhibited Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cesar and Andy Warhol.