ARTWORKS

Sadio Diallo is the quintessential inhabitant of Dakar, Senegal. On one level his work incorporates all the fantastical elements of that most modern and yet ancient of cities that sits at the confluence of desert and ocean, of ancient spirituality, Islam and Christianity, of colliding kingdoms, communities and histories and most of all a living city, perhaps due to its very special geography at the western most tip of the African Continent, surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic, that is cosmopolitan, open, curious and forward facing in everything it does. And yet at a deeper level, in his current body of work: "A Different Kind of Blues," Sadio speaks specifically from a childhood lived in one of Dakar's most culturally fluid neighbourhoods. Sicap Baobab hosts a city within a city which was home to former military families from all over the francophone West Africa region. Sadio describes growing up there as being immersed in a thick broth of so many histories - ranging across the many iconic cultures of West Africa such as the Peulh, Mandingue, Dioula and Dogon, to name just a few. Symbols of these cultures inform the intense background of his work upon which he layers images that are iconic and global. Sicap Baobab also hosts a large population of Cape Verdeans who often run the ubiquitous corner shops of Dakar called Butiks, decorated with images of the merchandise they sell on surrounding walls. And there we have the origin of the Coca Cola bottle in Sadio's paintings.

Sadio is more than cementing his place as one of the valued contemporary artists from the African continent who defy description because of their innovative and completely avant-garde vitality. He has been widely exhibited in Senegal and globally. He is a regular participant at the Dakar Art Biennale in the DAK’ART OFF. He has represented Senegal at the Exposicion Universal in Zaragoza (Spain). He has also shown at the Galerie Africaine in Paris. His work attracted attention in Barcelona at the Out of Africa Gallery as well as in group exhibits in Freiburg, Germany.  Most recently he was selected for the Presidential Salon of Art in Dakar. He will undoubtedly make another huge splash at the 2024 Dak”Art Biennale.

aKAZI is honored to exhibit Sadio’s latest highly personal collection titled ‘A Different Kind of Blues’ in which he speaks through multiple lenses from childhood to the present adult he is now and the future he imagines.