Galerie Templon is exhibiting works of Abdelkader Benchamma, Alioune Diagne, Kehinde Wiley, and Omar Ba in this year’s participation at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Marrakech.
Abdelkader Benchamma chooses to work in a sole medium: drawing. He adopts different approaches to the drawing process: moving across a sheet of paper or spreading over a wall with lavish gestures. Inspired by literature, philosophy, astrophysics, and esoteric reflections, his works create visual scenarios that question our relationship to reality as they probe the frontiers of the invisible.
Alioune Diagne graduated from the Beaux-Arts in Dakar in 2008. In 2013, he immediately distinguished himself by founding a unique mode of expression: the “figuro-abstro.” Composed of a figure created from an infinite number of tiny unique elements, Diagne’s work challenges the viewer with its complexity and the dynamism of its scenes which depict the daily life of the black community and the African diaspora throughout the world.
Examining issues of racial and sexual identity, Kehinde Wiley’s works create collisions where art history and street culture come face to face. The artist makes eroticised heroes of the invisible, those historically banished from representations of power. The artist has become known worldwide and was chosen by Barack Obama to paint his official presidential portrait in 2018.
Omar Ba paintings, produced using various techniques and materials, represent political and social motifs open to multiple interpretations. His artistic vocabulary raises historical and timeless questions while formulating a contemporary 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.
Galerie Templon was founded in 1966 by Daniel Templon. Galerie Templon represents a group of international artists, and its program promotes dialogue between generations: established, mid-career, and young emerging artists. The gallery also provides curatorial expertise and assistance in mounting exhibitions by its artists in museums or international exhibitions.
Source and All images: © Courtesy of Galerie Templon, Paris —Brussels — New York.
