by Featured Artist

Ousmane Bâ

Les combattants

Ousmane Bâ | OCT 2024 | Issue 38

Ousmane Bâ began his creative journey in his hometown of Strasbourg, where he honed his artistic skills as a self-taught artist through various audiovisual projects in collaboration with local collectives. Today, his practice spans drawing, painting, and collage. His work focuses on the concept of space and explores the ideas of belonging and freedom.

“I create dreamlike spaces in which I liberate racialized bodies from societal prejudice, from physical gravity.” — Ousmane Bâ

Between 2013 and 2017, the artist refined his aesthetic vision by working as a graphic designer for various French startups. At the same time, he drew inspiration from his travels and encounters to enrich his work. Senegalese, Japanese, and French cultures greatly influence the painter’s creations.

When he decided to move to Japan in 2018, his artistic eye solidified. Through Nihonga, a traditional Japanese painting technique, Ousmane Bâ elevates the human form. Like sculptures in motion, the bodies come to life against a backdrop of washi paper collage. Warm and cold tones intertwine harmoniously, creating characters with diverse stories but a shared sensitivity.

“Bodies are, for me, spiritual, aesthetic, and physical vectors. They are merely objects that make up my spaces of freedom.” — Ousmane Bâ

Constantly evolving, Ousmane Bâ is a versatile, chameleon-like artist who navigates between various cultural and geographical influences. He gained public recognition at the Dakar Biennale in 2022, where he exhibited his series of works titled Interweaving Entrelacement at Galerie Atiss. This was followed by numerous exhibitions around the world: in Paris at the AKAA African Art Fair, in Lagos at the prestigious Art x Lagos international art fair, as well as in New York at 1:54, in Geneva, and in South Africa.

Resolutely cosmopolitan, Ousmane Bâ remains deeply inspired by his Fulani roots, a traditionally pastoral people of West Africa. The celestial dimension of his works reflects an elevating intention, a desire to transcend the reality of space and time through art.

“The creation of each space is a spiritual act through which I try to transcend earthly conditions.” — Ousmane Bâ