Born in 1977 in Senegal, Omar Ba lives and works in Dakar and New York. His paintings, produced using a variety of techniques and materials, represent political and social motifs open to multiple interpretations. His artistic vocabulary raises historical and timeless questions while formulating a wholly contemporary artistic message. Omar Ba’s iconography features personal metaphors, ancestral references and hybrid figures. This combination of heterogeneous elements illustrates his desire to abolish boundaries and categories. His work, with its enigmatic nature and poetic intensity, rejects all forms of didactic narrative, seeking instead to express his subconscious and his symbolic interpretation of the real
Born in 1977 in Senegal
Lives and works in New York, United States and in Dakar, Senegal
EDUCATION
ECAV-MAPS Arts in Public Spheres, Sierre, Switzerland
Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-arts, Geneva, Switzerland
Ecole National des Beaux-Arts, Senegal
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2020
Same Dream, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, Canada
2019
Omar Ba : Visions partagées, Montreal Museum of Fina Arts, Montreal, Canada
Same Dream, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
The power of objects, Wilde Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2018
Autopsie de nos consciences, Galerie Templon, Paris, France
2017
Supernova, Hales Gallery, London, UK
2016
Eclosion, Galerie Templon, Brussels, Belgium
2015
Gallery Anne de Villapoix, Paris, France
Gallery Guiseppe Pero, Milan, Italy
2014
Gallery Hales, London, UK
Eclipse, Gallery Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
2013
Pandore, Gallery Le Manège, Institut Français de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
Claudia Comte & Omar Ba, CentrePasquArt, Bienne, Switzerland
2012
Le Monde des Apparences, Gallery Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
2011
Fiction ou Réalité, Gallery Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
Wait and See, Gallery 1000eventi, Milan, Italy
2010
Projet Room, Gallery Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
XXL, Galerie 1000eventi, Milan, Italy
2008
Art en l’Ile, Geneva, Switzerland
2007
Espace Kis, Geneva, Switzerland
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2020
Global(e) Resistance, Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
2019
From the Paper to the Wall, Galerie Templon, Bruxelles, Belgique
2018
40 ans de passion, Omar Ba, Prune Nourry, Tunga, Fondation Fernet-Branca, Saint-Louis, France
Quel Amour ?!, Musée d’art Contemporain, Marseille, France
Afrique. Artistes d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, Fondation Clément, Martinique, France
D’Afrique aux Amériques: Picasso en face-à-face, d’hier à aujourd’hui, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
2017
Zoocryptage, Crypte Sainte-Eugénie, Biarritz, France
Afrique, raconter le monde, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
Le Havre – Dakar, Partager la mémoire, Muséum d'histoire naturelle du Havre, France
Art/Afrique, Le Nouvel Atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
En toute modestie – Archipel Di Rosa, Miam Sète, Sète, France
Festival Afropolitan, Bozar Bruxelles, Belgique
2016
Salon d’Automne, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Mauvaises Graines 2, Topographie de l'Art, Paris, France
You Go To My Head, Galerie Templon, Brussels, Belgium
2014
Summer Exhibition 2014, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
Ici l’Afrique/ Here Africa. L’Afrique contemporaine à travers le regard de ses artistes, Château de Penthes, Geneva, Switzerland
Authentik Energie, Le Manoir de la ville de Martigny, Martigny, Switzerland
2013
Collective II, Gallery GuyBärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
VITALIC, Hales Gallery, London, UK
I’m your neighbour !, Bromer Art Collection, Roggwil, Switzerland
Primitive Cabaret : A Spiritual Voodoo confrontation, Gallery Polad-Hardouin, Paris, France
Situation 2, Ferme-Asile, Sion, Switzerland
Utopie picturale, Villa Dutoit, Geneva, Switzerland
2012
STILL LIFE, Gallery 1000eventi, Milan, Italy
La Jeunesse est un art, Aargauer Kunthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Exposition collective, Gallery Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
La forêt rouge, Musée de Bagnes, le Chäble, Switzerland
Ambiguous Creatures in a Fragile World, Gallery Sanaa, The Netherlands
2011
Apparition, Villa Bernasconi, Grand-Lancy, Switzerland
Tu vois c’que j’veux dire, EX-EPA, Vevey, Switzerland
Inner Landscapes, Gallery Sanaa, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Dessin aujourd’hui et demain 7, Espace Kugler, Geneva, Switzerland
Resonance/ Dissonance, Gallery Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
2010
20 ans déjà !, Gallery Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
Villa Sovietica, Musée d’ethnographie, Geneva, Switzerland
2009
When I was a King, Circuit - L’Urbaines, Lausanne, Switzerland
I am by birth a Genevese, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
I am by birth a Genevese, Forde, Espace d’art contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
2006
Ganga Gallery, Bogota, Colombia
2005
Académie de Belle Arte, Brescia, Italy
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)
Centre National des Arts Plastiques, France
Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain (FMAC) de la ville de Paris, France
Collection du Credit Suisse, Switzerland
Collection Louis Vuitton Fondation, France
Collection Mirabaud, Switzerland
Collection Nationale Suisse, Basel, Switzerland
Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain (FMAC) de la ville de Genève, Switzerland
La Poste Suisse, Switzerland
Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
2019
Omar Ba, Same Dream, No. 8, The Power Plant Pages, The Power Plant Contemporary Ar Gallery, under the edirtorship of Gaëtane Verna, Toronto, Canada
2016
Exhibition catalogue, Mauvaises Graines, Edition Topographie de l'Art, Paris, France
2014
Omar Ba, La Prophétie des Gens de Durban / The Prophecy of the People of Durban, Hales Gallery, Paris, France
