Omar
Ba

Omar Ba’s world is peopled with hybrid creatures that come before us hieratically in front of grounds that are usually black. Emerging from this darkness, coloured touches explode on the surface, revealing figures with hidden, mysterious faces, often those of a cow, hedgehog, fish, tiger, monkey, or other animal. These are the messengers invoked by the artist. They appear majestically on the dark surface, the black-painted base onto which he applies his colours. These works tell a story that seeks to erase the frontiers between Africa and Europe, past and present, good and bad. Usually painted on corrugated cardboard, a rough material that this artist favours, the compositions are full of precisely painted details, with medals, landscapes, leaves and other plants constituting a teeming repertoire amenable to different levels of interpretation. The artist’s palette runs through a series of dazzling touches which, like embers, further heighten the dynamic of forms and compositions. In his art, African memories mingle with images of western experiences.