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Plate-forme de la confiance – CFA pillage à huis clos 2

2016

Omar BA

Mixed media

204 x 147,5 cm

Technique: Oils, pencil, India ink, acrylic, gouache on corrugated cardboard

Omar Ba's paintings, which he creates using a variety of techniques and materials, resonate with political and social motifs open to multiple interpretations. His visual language resonates with historic and timeless questions while developing an artistic framework that is resolutely modern. The images he uses evoke personal metaphors, ancestral references, and hybrid figures. His work refuses didactic narration and aims, through its enigmatic dimension and poetic force, to express his subconscious and his symbolic perception of reality.

We can see here old CFA francs seemingly floating on top of the water. His favourite medium is corrugated cardboard. He prefers to paint on cardboard than on canvas because it is harder and can be attached to the wall or to the floor, which makes him feel like he is fully in control. He can walk on it, roll it up and carry it easily without damaging the artwork. His works involve rich iconography and a plural and hybrid bestiary. Several of his artworks dissolve the boundaries separating humans, animals, and plants. His paintings include official portraits, an inoffensive yet eerie imaginary bestiary, and hybrid half-man, half-beast creatures.

Omar BA

Sénégal

Born in 1977

Aftergraduating from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dakar in 2002, hetravelled to Bonn, Germany, to participate in a symposium on colour language.After returning from Germany, he participated in several exhibitions in Senegalbefore flying to Switzerland, where he has been living since 2003. He thenstudied for a postgraduate degree at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts inGenève. Afterwards, he attended the École Cantonale d’Art Visuel du Valais inSierre, Switzerland from 2009 to 2011. There, he caught Guy Bärtschi’sattention. In 2011, he received the Swiss Art Award.

After settling in Geneva,Omar Ba decided to give up on abstraction in order to dedicate himself tofigurative and narrative painting. Profusion is very important in the artist’swork. He uses a wide array of techniques and materials. On black paintedbackdrops, he often depicts political and social subjects open to multipleinterpretations. His main sources are to be found in African culture and inpower and authority issues.