At the Venice Biennale, Kaloki Nyamai’s Vast Installations Confront Chaos and Healing – Interview
-
Amid the crowds and national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, Kenyan artist Kaloki Nyamai remains focused on questions of connection, healing, and human fragmentation. At the Arsenale, his monumental works are impossible to ignore. Rising like immense suspended surfaces within…
-
A Senegalese Curator Brings Light Through the Fissures at the Venice Biennale
In the hushed halls of the 17th-century Palazzo Donà dalle Rose, where the light filters through ancient windows onto Venetian floors, Mama Anne has quietly inserted an Afro-diasporic voice into one of the most prestigious stages in contemporary art. As…
-
For Omar Ba, the Canvas Is a Political Battlefield: “Art Is Not a Game. It’s a Form of Violence.”
The day everything changed, Omar Ba was sitting in a classroom at a technical school in Dakar, Senegal, facing an impossible assignment. Rather than hand in a blank page, he drew a figure being stabbed in the back. His mechanics…
-
Birame Ndiaye’s ‘Urban Jungle’: Painting the Shadows of Dakar
Birame Ndiaye (b.1968), a Senegalese visual artist from Pikine, a working-class suburb of Dakar where he grew up, has been developing for over thirty years a body of work deeply rooted in urban reality, which he calls Urban Jungle —…
-
Enough Praise, Not Enough Judgment: Dr. Célestin Koffi Yao Calls for Art to Be Put on Trial
Ivorian art critic Célestin Koffi Yao reflects on the lack of critical discourse on artists from Africa, where promotion often replaces analysis. He calls for a more rigorous approach to art criticism, grounded in intellectual inquiry and the idea of…
-
For Senegal at the Venice Biennale, Caroline Gueye’s Inquiry Into Gold and Perception
When the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens its doors on May 9, under the title In Minor Keys, Senegal will present its second official national pavilion. Curated by Massamba Mbaye, the pavilion features Caroline Gueye,…
-
“Art Is a Blessing from God”: In His Studio Overlooking the Atlantic, Moussa Sène Absa Merges Painting and Cinema
In the heart of Popenguine, a peaceful village on Senegal’s Petite Côte bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Moussa Sène Absa opens the doors to his world. For more than thirty years, the filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist has chosen to live…
-
Why the Dakar Biennale Still Matters — Despite Everything
The announcement, in late January 2025, that the 16th edition of the Dakar Biennale would take place from November 19 to December 19, 2026, brought a sense of relief commensurate with the concerns that had preceded it. For months, the…
-
In Assinie, a Luxury Hotel That Became an Open-Air Museum
About 80 kilometers east of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, along the Atlantic coastline, Assinie has long been known as a seaside retreat. But beyond its beaches and resorts, a different kind of landscape is quietly taking shape. For DakArtNews, this visit…
-
Marie-Cécile Zinsou on Why Museums Matter in Africa — and Who They Are For
Over the past two decades, museums and cultural initiatives have begun to reshape the artistic landscape across Africa, redefining not only how art is produced and exhibited, but also how it is experienced locally. In Benin, few figures have played…
Join 900+ subscribers
Stay in the loop with everything you need to know.
Bridging Africa and The World Through Contemporary Art 