Alioune Diagne

Tukki

For his first show at Galerie Templon’s Brussels space, Franco-Senegalese painter Alioune Diagne is unveiling more than twenty canvases centring on the notions of travel, motion and displacement with the Tukki exhibition.

Exhibition view, Tukki, TEMPLON Brussels, 2024
Exhibition view, Tukki, TEMPLON Brussels, 2024

Composed of figurative images created from an infinite number of motifs, Diagne’s work enthrals thanks to its complexity and the energy of the scenes portraying the daily life of the Black community and African diaspora around the world.

The exhibition unfurls in a palette of shimmering colours: lime green rubs shoulders with indigo, aquamarine and canary yellow in an explosion of vivid hues. The pieces in this series flirt boldly with abstraction. At first glance, our gaze is lost in the countless marks that make up the painting, none of them identical. It is only by standing back from the canvas that we can make out the local scenes, captured in all their artlessness. One of them depicts a market scene while another shows a morning gathering in the street. Under their inconsequential appearance lies an opportunity for the artist to question the ambivalence of the “tukki”, the journey in Africa, evoking his father’s experience: when looking for work, he and his companions were forced to take long journeys to far-off places.

With the act of overthrowing the codes of figurative painting, Diagne proves himself to be a shrewd observer of Western societies and African communities. “A European abroad is called an expatriate,” he explains. “Whereas the African diaspora, the ‘modu modu’, tend to be called immigrants. It’s a very subtle nuance in our languages that nevertheless illustrates the unvoiced difference that is still firmly anchored in our societies.”

Diagne’s work, nourished by his own travels, aims to highlight the dignity of this diaspora and the African community he grew up in. “By painting daily life I’m seeking to give the Black community the credit they are due. I’m not depicting people who are suffering, but a community in all its beauty and power.”

Les New Yorkaises, 2022

Details

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The artist

Born in 1985 in Kaffrine, Senegal, Alioune Diagne lives and works between Senegal and France. Former Beaux-Arts student in Dakar, he immediately distinguished himself by founding in 2013 an unique mode of expression. Composed of a figurative created from an infinite number of tiny unique element, Diagne's work challenges by its complexity and the dynamism of its scenes which depict the daily life of the black community and the African diaspora through the world. At the age of 38 he thus lays the groundwork for deep reflection on current issues as the ecology, the place of women in society, the racism and the notion of transmission or heritage. 
In April 2024, the artist will have the honor of representing his country on the Senegalese Pavilion at 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

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