On my way back from Kenya, I stopped for a few days in Paris. It was perfect timing because I was able to see Omar Ba’s exhibition “ Le Monde des Apparences” at  Anne de Villepoix’s gallery. I was in for a feast of allegories, bursts of intense color, and charged political meaning. Omar Ba is a young Senegalese painter who has been living in Geneva since 2003. After having studied his art degree at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Dakar he completed an MA at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Geneva where he was quickly noticed by the gallery Guy Bartschi. This is his second show at Anne de Villepoix.

Omar Ba’s paintings present a colorful, fantastic, at times chaotic world where the order of things as we perceive them in the visible world is turned on its head. Giant plants tower over a miniature human world gripped by globalization; huge mother and father figures become hybrid godlike creatures at once terrifying and seductive because of the sheer beauty of Omar Ba’s craftsmanship and decorative use of saturated color.  His highly imaginative personal imagery fuses personal metaphors and ancestral symbols that reflect the animist belief that all plant, animal and human life has a soul. His symbolism is charged with meaning and builds a narrative around political themes critical of the power systems that exists in Africa. Omar Ba works well on a small scale and delivers a powerful message but I also like the ambitious and more complex visions reflected in his large scale works which strive to integrate multiple time, spatial and psychological realities though a juxtaposition of skillfully painted vignettes. These vignettes coexist on the same plane physically, but through shifts of scale defying traditional perspective they shed light on the layered meaning of his paintings and reveal what lies beyond appearances. There is a formal push and pull effect that draws the viewer in and requires time to fully apprehend the full meaning of the painting.

His paintings are done on simple cardboard and present a mix of oil paint, gouaches and ink. Omar Ba always blackens the cardboard with black opaque paint at times layering it with a coat of white feathery, slightly iridescent brushstrokes. While content matters here I was also enchanted by painting passages, which revealed Omar Ba’s love for the process of painting and skillful use of decorative elements.