Diadji Diop (Senegal)

Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1973. Lives and works in Paris.

Diadji Diop arrived in France from Dakar Senegal in 1994, with the aim of becoming a cartoonist. In the preparatory class, he discovers the multiple potentialities of sculpture and decides to changes paths. His passion for cartoons and cinema will still nourish his work, whether through the realistic aspect of his sculptures or through his narrative-sized installations.

In 1995, he joined the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and successively worked in the Bruno Lebel and Richard Deacon’s workshops. He then graduated with honours in 2001 and participated the following year in the exhibition Félicités. Since then, he has exhibited at the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery, la Villette, the Dakar Biennial and the Visual Art Festival of Abidjan.

His work is crossed by questions of identity, exile and violence. He values realistic forms, questions human relationships and reveals the painful interiorities without ever falling into pathos, with humour, force and sometimes derision. His work is a call for dialogue as well as to sharing, beyond the skin colour, the borders or the hatred’s trades.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014

"Rétrospective 1998-2014", 55Bellechasse Gallery (Paris, France)

2005

Batofar  (Paris)

2000

"Pendant ce temps…," USA foundation (Paris)

1998

"Paris lance ses jeunes talents", Sixth youth festival (Paris La Villette)

Breguet Coffee (Paris)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018

Art New York (New York, USA)

Art Market San Francisco (San Francisco, USA)

Art Wynwood (Miami, USA)

Palm Beach (Miami, USA)

2017

Palm Beach (Miami, USA)

Art Miami (Miami, USA)

SOFA Chicago (Chicago, USA)

YIA Art Fair (Paris, France)CI Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey)

Art NYC (New York, USA)

YIA Brussels (Brussels, Belgium)

YIA Maastricht (Maastricht, Netherland)

2016

YIA Carreau du temple (Paris, France)

The Solo Show Basel (Basel, Switzerland)

YIA Brussels (Brussels Belgium)

Art Boca Raton (Miami, USA)

2013 

French Kiss, Hôtel de Gallifet gallery (Aix-en-provence, France)

"Hors d’œuvres" (Les portes de l’Essonne, France)

2012

Le Rhinocéros,  Lazare Gallery (Avallon, France)

2011

"Hors d’œuvres" (Les Portes de l’Essonne, France)

2009

European heritage days, L’Élysée (Paris, France)

"Re-connaître l’Afrique",  L’Escale gallery (Levallois, France)

2008

Urbans chronics, "Grésilles en fête" fair (Dijon, France)

2007

Arts visuals of Abidjan (AVA)  (Abidjan, Ivory Coast)

2006

Soma Condition (Séoul, South Corea)

2005

L’Escale (Levallois-Perret, France)

2003

"Jeune Création", (La Villette Paris, France)

Exhibition "à quai" (Station de métro Porte des Lilas, Paris, France) 

House of Arts (Conches, France)

2002

"L’art c’est secondaire", "Félicités" exhibition at l’Ecole nationale supérieure at Beaux-arts (Paris, France)

Atiss Gallery, Biennale of Dakar (off) (Dakar, Senegal)

2001

Métiss-Art, University of Nanterre  (Nanterre, France)

2000

USA Foundation, with the association of "Porte Ouverte aux Nouveaux Talents (PONT)", (Paris, France)

Film festival Images d’Ailleurs, with the association (Faraga) (Paris, France) 

Cultural center Iranian of Créteil, with the association of "Iraniens du Val de Marne" (Val de Marne, France)

1999

USA Foundation, with the association of "Porte Ouverte aux Nouveaux Talents (PONT)", (Paris France)

Collège Henri Wallon with the association Faraga ( Ivry, France)

Film festival "Images d’Ailleurs" with the association Faraga (Paris, France)

École Supérieure de Commerce with the association Faraga (Paris, France)

American Chamber of Commerce with the association Portes Ouvertes aux Nouveaux Talents (PONT) / (Paris, France)

1998

Exhibition collection with Alain Séchas and Efiaimbelo, Emmanuel Perrottin gallery (Paris, France)

"Flèche d’Or" with the association Faraga (Paris, France)

See the famous b55 hat all around the world!