ALIOU DIACK
Aliou Diack was born in 1987 in Sidi Bougou, in the Mbour region of Dakar, Senegal.
As child, Aliou already recorded proportions, colours and textures of flora and fauna in sketchbooks. At the age of 10 he moved to the heart of Dakar. There he found neither the same nature nor the same freedom, and compensated by drawing 'everywhere' around him, in order to recreate his own world.
He embarked on art studies at the Ecole Nationale des Arts de Dakar to expand his artistic field and master techniques other than drawing.
In 2014, he graduated at the top of his class with an already unmistakable style of his own.
At a breathtaking pace, he has since collaborated with many artists, developed and applied new concepts and techniques, exhibited at the most prestigious art fairs, such as solo artist at Art Basel (OH GALLERY).
His main goal to pay homage to creation is his guiding principle.
Solo exhibitions
2025
The delicacy of the untamed, ARTBASE Berlin, Germany
2024
Pèlerinage, Maison Ousmane Sow, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
Anastomosis, Space One, Tokyo, Japan
Eclipse, Galerie MAM, Douala, Cameroon
2023
Lux mea lex, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
Les cimes de la pensée, Galerie 38, Casablanca, Morocco
2022
Art Basel, Bâle, Suisse, OH GALLERY
Garabou wolof, Michael Fuchs Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2021
Installation hors les murs The Bed of life, Musée Théodore Monod, Dakar, Senegal
2020
Installation hors les murs, The bed of life, OH GALLERY and Espace Médina, Dakar, Senegal
2019
Chaman, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
Adduna, Donwahi Foundation, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Group exhibitions
2025
Festival of Future Nows, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Germany
Echoes of Gaia, The Page Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2024
Niam n'goura : between filiation and dissidence towards a Senegalese art, OH Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Dry Ocean Collective, Madrid, Spain
Mutations, Montresso Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco
Beyond borders, Galerie 38, Marrakech, Morocco
2023
Gorée, Regards sur cours, Dakar, Senegal
2022
La meute, OFF Biennale de Dakar H GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
(UN)CHARTED GROUNDS, OFF Biennale de Dakar, The Matter art project, Dakar, Senegal
Tant qu'il y aura des arbres qui s'enracineront dans la terre, OFF Biennale de Dakar, IF, Dakar, Senegal
2021
Réalités oniriques, habiter le réel, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
2020
Matter, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
Cathartic Icons, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Senegal
2019
SEEDS FOR FUTURE MEMORIES, Villa Romana/Freiraum/IFA, Berlin, Germany
Regards sur cours, Gorée, Dakar, Senegal
Les Fabulistes, Le Manège Gallery, French Institute, Dakar, Senegal
2018
Exposition à la Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
Trêve d’exotisme, regards sur l’art contemporain en Afrique de l’Ouest, Brasserie de Claussen, Luxembourg
Renaissance, OH GALLERY, Dakar, Sénégal
2017
Partcours avec la Galerie Atiss, Dakar, Sénégal
Alem, l’A-Venir, avec le Laboratoire Agit’Art, la Galerie Le Manège, Institut Français, Dakar, Sénégal
Collectif D-Clik avec Ibrahima Dieye, Dakar, Sénégal
Commissaire de l’exposition de Viyé Diba, Galerie National des Arts, Dakar, Sénégal
Regards sur cours, Hôtel de la ville, Gorée, Dakar, Sénégal
Itinéraires artistiques de Saint-Louis, CRDS, Saint Louis, Sénégal
2016
Partcours, avec la Galerie Atiss, Dakar, Sénégal
Marathon Eiffage, CICAD Diamniadio, Diamniadio, Sénégal
Biennale de l’Art Contemporain Dak’Art, 12e édition, OFF à la RTS, Dakar, Sénégal
Itinéraires artistiques de Saint-Louis, CRDS, Saint-Louis, Sénégal
2015
Partcours, avec la Galerie Atiss, Dakar, Sénégal
Exposition au Palais des Papes avec la Fondation Blachère, Avignon, France
2014
Exposition hommage aux femmes à la Galerie Nationale des Arts, Dakar, Sénégal
Biennale de l’Art Contemporain Dak’Art, OFF au Théâtre Daniel Sorano, Dakar, Sénégal
2013
Give 1 project, USAID, Ile de Ngor, Dakar, Sénégal
Performance aux côtés de Doudou Ndiaye Coumba Rose et le Lycée Moderne, Dakar, Sénégal
Art Fairs
2025
1:54 Marrakech, Maroc, Space Un
Tokyo gendai Art Fair, Space Un
2024
Art x Lagos, Nigéria, Galerie MAM
1:54 Marrakech
2022
Art Basel, Bâle, Suisse, OH GALLERY
2020
Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Cathartic Icons, OH GALLERY (online)
2019
AKAA Also Know As Africa, Art Fair avec la galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair avec la galerie Anne de Villepoix, Londres, Royaume-Uni
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair avec la galerie Anne de Villepoix, New York, Etats-Unis
2018
1:54 Londres, Galerie (S)itor Senghor, Londres, Royaume-Uni
ART x Lagos Art Fair, collaboration entre Galerie Atiss & Galerie MAM, Lagos, Nigéria
2017
AKAA au Carreau du Temple avec la Galerie Atiss, Paris, France
ART x Lagos Art Fair, Galerie Atiss x la Galerie MAM x la Fondation Donwahi, Lagos, Nigéria
Art Paris Art Fair avec la Galerie Atiss, Paris, France
Artistic residencies
2024 Foundation Montresso, Marrakech, Maroc
Fondation MAM, Suza, Cameroun
2023 Foundation Montresso, Marrakech, Maroc
2018 Foundation Donwahi, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Villa Romana, Florence, Italie
2017
Foundation Blachère, La Somone, Sénégal
2016 Thread Sénégal, Fondation Josef and Anni Albers, Tambacounda, Sénégal
Collections
JOM collection
The Blavy collection
David H. Brolliet
Olym collection
Collection Eiffage
Collection Blachère
Collection Société Général
Atidjra Wafa Bank
Part of ARTBASE since 2025
soon we will anounce his debut solo exhibition at ARTBASE Wiesbaden. Then we will be happy to show you a selection of his organic canvases and his water color drawings.
Aliou Diack’s art merges nature, tradition, and spirituality with modern aesthetics.
Aliou Diack has a strong spirituality rooted in his childhood, which permeates both his life and artistic work. This essence draws from the power of the untamed nature and jungle of his childhood in Sidi Bougou, in the semi-arid Mbour region of Senegal.
In all its unpredictability, incorruptibility, danger, beauty and tenderness, his work sharpens the senses and shows what it means to live in symbiosis.
Aliou Diack expresses spiritual certainties, such as the deep connection between fauna and flora, through polymorphic forms and countless colour tones.
His almost monochrome canvases, animated by thousands of atoms, seem to breathe.
The artist's paintings are often textured and covered with natural pigments in burnt brown and orange tones, indigo blue and reddish brown, which merge into one another. Sometimes he leaves his canvases to nature for a while and gives the elements the creative upper hand. Then he intervenes again himself, pushing earth and seeds back and forth, reinforcing associations that have arisen or dispersing them by adding earth and crushed herbs from plants and trees that are often used by traditional shamans for medicinal purposes.
His artistic process is similar to that of sowing.
His watercolour drawings, on the other hand, seem to have been created in a dance-like rhythm, as if in passing, full of lightness and humour.
