Omar Ba’s work engages with some of the most urgent issues of our time: the growing inequality of wealth and power globally, forced migration and our changing relationship with the natural world. His penchant for depicting personal narratives alongside collective ones speaks to the in-between condition of his work, as he splits his time between Dakar, Senegal and Geneva, Switzerland, and blends the visual texture of both places through his practice. Ba draws from and intertwines a range of elements— the historical and contemporary, figurative and abstract imagery—from African and European cultures.

Same Dream brings together several of Ba’s paintings depicting dictators and authority figures, who lead corrupt and violent regimes across the African continent and in other parts of the world, particularly where the legacies of colonialism persist.

Additional Resources

Watch Omar Ba Studio Tour and Artist Talk, in conversation with Justine Kohleal

This creative leadership workshop is a collaboration between: 

WATCH: Studio Tour and Artist Talk with Omar Ba, In Conversation with Justine Kohleal

This program is presented in both English and French, please click the [CC] icon for English subtitles and close captioning.

Presented By

Join Contemporary Calgary and The Power Plant for a candid conversation between artist Omar Ba and curator Justine Kohleal as they discuss Ba’s practice from its early beginnings to current observations. Walking us through his studio in Dakar, Ba takes us behind the scenes, sharing his process and method of working, as well as insights into exhibition Same Dream, on view at Contemporary Calgary (17 September 2020 – 14 March 2021).

Omar Ba is a Senegalese artist whose paintings evoke a shared cosmogony between humans, plants and animals. His penchant for depicting personal narratives alongside collective ones speak to the “in-between” condition of his work, as he splits his time between Dakar, Senegal and Geneva, Switzerland, and blends the visual texture of both places through his practice. Ba draws from and intertwines a range of elements—the historical and contemporary, figurative and abstract imagery—from both African and European cultures.

ABOUT THE ARTIST AND CURATOR

Omar Ba (born 1977, Dakar, Senegal) lives and works between Dakar and Geneva. Ba has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, most recently at MAC Marseille, France (2018); the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris (2017); BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium (2017); Ferme-Asile, Sion, Switzerland (2015); Hales Gallery, London, UK (2017, 2014); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2014); Biennale de Dakar, Senegal (2014); and Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2012), among others. Ba’s works can be found in private and public collections, including Credit Suisse, Switzerland; Fonds municipal d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland; Fonds municipal d’art contemporain de la Ville de Paris; Centre national des arts plastiques, France; the Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva; the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In 2011, Ba received the Swiss Art Award.

Justine Kohleal is an Assistant Curator at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Ontario. Select past curatorial projects include [INTERFACE] (Fringe Gallery, Edmonton); Intellectual Play (dc3 Art Projects, Edmonton); and Sounding the Alarm: The Poetics of Connection (Art Gallery of Ontario). Since joining The Power Plant she has curated show by Beth Stuart, Thomas J Price, and Howie Tsui, and assisted on exhibitions by Ellen Gallagher, Shuvinai Ashoona, and Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa. She has interned with The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Centre for American Art and with the Art Gallery of Ontario. Kohleal holds a curatorial M.F.A from OCAD University and a B.A. from the University of Alberta with a focus in Art, Design, and Visual Culture.