On November 20, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will open the first U.S. museum exhibition of works by acclaimed Senegalese contemporary artist Omar Ba. Born outside of Dakar and living between Dakar, Brussels, and Geneva, Ba creates expressive figurative paintings that often intertwine African and European cultures and histories to examine the corrupting nature of wealth and power and their impacts on global communities. While Ba’s work has been shown extensively abroad, it has not yet been given the study and attention it so richly deserves in the U.S. With Omar Ba: Political Animals, the BMA introduces audiences to the incredible conceptual, social, and political relevance of Ba’s oeuvre as well as to his distinct formal approach, which combines the fine detail associated with drawing and the scale and grandeur of history paintings. On view through April 2, 2023, Political Animals provides visitors with a micro-survey of Ba’s practice with approximately 15 large-scale works on canvas and corrugated cardboard, a selection of early works on paper, and inventive modular wall paintings, including a site-specific mural made especially for the BMA’s presentation. The exhibition is curated by Leslie Cozzi, BMA Curator, Prints, Drawings & Photographs.
Omar Ba
Omar Ba was born in 1977 in a Serer village near Dakar in the Fatick region of Senegal. After first studying mechanics, he was trained as an artist at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Dakar and the École Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Genève. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Brussels, Belgium), Wilde Gallery (Basel and Geneva, Switzerland), Galerie Templon (Paris and Brussels), the Contemporary Calgary (Canada), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada), The Power Plant (Toronto, Canada), and Hales Gallery (London, UK). Other recent group exhibitions include those at Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Musée d’Art Contemporain (Marseille, France), Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, France), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, Belgium), and the Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK). His works have been included in several public collections, including those of the Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal (Canada), Chazen Museum of Art (Madison, WI), Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris, France), Swiss National Collection (Basel, Switzerland), Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, France), Louvre (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Collection du Credit Suisse (Switzerland), Collection Mirabaud (Switzerland) and Ville de Genève (Switzerland). In 2011, Ba received the prestigious Swiss Art Award.
More Information: artbma.org
Geneva © Omar Ba
