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Touring Exhibition
A recasting of history, diasporic experience and global politics of black resistance
Find directions, opening hours, accessibility and ticketing information on Kunsten Museum of Modern Art's website
The critically acclaimed Senegalese contemporary artist Omar Victor Diop is now touring at Kunsten Museum of Modern Art. His striking photographs capture modern African sensibilities, and often focus on a recasting of history, the representation of diasporic experiences and global politics of black resistance.
Combining photography with other art forms, Omar Victor Diop’s remarkable body of work includes fine art, fashion, design, and portrait photography. Using artistic self-portraiture as a key tool to engage with complex representational politics, community embodiment and ideas of self-fashioning, his practice is characterised by meticulously staged, dramatic imagery in which the artist himself appears as the main visual protagonist and interlocutor.
This exhibition presents – brought together for the first time – three distinct yet interconnected emblematic bodies of works completed between 2014–2021: Allegoria, Diaspora, and Liberty, alongside an Autograph artist commission.
Diaspora (2014) draws inspiration from 15th to 19th century Western portraits depicting a diverse constituency of black figures who have risen to prominence in courts, science, politics, and social movements in Europe – yet often missing from conventional narratives. Largely based on historical paintings, which Diop imbues with playful contemporary references, the series celebrates four centuries of notable Africans with extraordinary lives in the diaspora.
In Liberty (2017), subtitled A Universal Chronology of Black Protest, the artist reinterprets significant moments of historical revolt associated with the struggle for black freedom – from anti-Apartheid movements in South Africa to civil right campaigns in America, the Caribbean and Europe to contemporary Black Lives Matter politics, exploring what unifies and defines these ongoing, global fights for equality and human rights.
Diop’s most recent project Allegoria (2021), imaginatively addresses the climate crisis and its impact on the Global South and the African continent especially. In these vibrant metaphorical, paradisiacal images, Diop is pictured amidst stunning imagery of carefully constructed flora and fauna. Here, openly borrowing from genres that include classical painting, religious iconography and West African photographic studio portraiture, as well as science textbooks and encyclopaedia, the artist considered the fate of humanity in the wake of natural disasters and environmental decline, asking how we may secure more viable, liveable futures together.
In 2018, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush, Autograph invited Diop to create two new artworks in response to iconic archive images in their collection. The Windrush portraits capture West Indian migrants from the Caribbean beginning a new life in Great Britain in the late 1940s: a watershed moment at first filled with hope and anticipation, soon followed by the harsh reality of discrimination, hardship and unemployment.
Omar Victor Diop is based on a 2018 exhibition by Autograph, originally presented in London (co-curated by Renée Mussai and Mark Sealy), this touring iteration for Fotografiska is curated by Renée Mussai and reflects the accompanying monograph Omar Victor Diop (5 Continents Editions, 2021). This exhibition is produced for Fotografiska Stockholm by Johan Vikner in collaboration with Autograph, London and Gallery MAGNIN-A, Paris.
Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 4, 2021
Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 7, 2021
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Omar Victor Diop, Pedro Camejo 1790 – 1821. From Project Diaspora, 2014
Omar Victor Diop, Ministry of Labour and National Service, Liverpool: 1949, 2018
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Omar Victor Diop, Selma 1965. From Liberty, 2016
Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 1, 2021
Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass 1818–1895, 2014 from Project Diaspora
Omar Victor Diop, Empire Windrush, Tilbury Docks: 1948, 2018
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Omar Victor Diop, Trayon Martin, 2012. From Liberty, 2016
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Omar Victor Diop, Thiaroye 1944. From Liberty, 2016
Regarded as one of the most important Senegalese photographers of his generation, Omar Victor Diop was born in Dakar in 1980 and was brought up there. He now divides his time between his birthplace and Paris.
From a very early age, Diop cultivated his vivid imagination as much through photography as through literature and history, leading him to hone his talent in several art forms, from collage and creative writing to fashion and textile design. His influences include the major African portrait artists Mama Casset, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, the French creator Jean-Paul Goude, as well as a number of Flemish and Spanish painters of the Renaissance.
Diop’s work is now part of major institutions collections — such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum in the United States, the Musée de la Photographie de Saint-Louis in Senegal — and has been shown in exhibitions at high-profile international events, such as Paris Photo and the Rencontres d’Arles in France, the New York edition of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Kyotographie in Japan. His images also appear regularly in magazines around the world, among them Harper’s Bazaar, Spanish Vogue and Madame Figaro. In addition, as an art director, Diop has led campaigns for many African fashion designers, but also for French brands like Lancel and Pernod Ricard. His first monograph, Omar Victor Diop, was published by 5 Continents Editions in 2021. He is represented by Galerie MAGNIN-A in Paris.
Omar Victor Diop's first solo exhibition in the UK, at Autograph in 2018
See moreOmar Victor Diop’s artist commission reinterprets a key moment in Britain’s cultural history of migration
See more
Watch Heni Talks' video with the artist and Autograph's director Mark Sealy
Watch
All photographs © Omar Victor Diop
Banner image: Omar Victor Diop, Liberty 9 [detail], 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.
Exhibition preview images: 1) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 4, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 2) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 7, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 3) Omar Victor Diop, Selma 1965. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 4) Omar Victor Diop, Empire Windrush, Tilbury Docks: 1948, 2018. Courtesy of and commissioned by Autograph, London. 5) Omar Victor Diop, Pedro Camejo 1790 – 1821. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 6) Omar Victor Diop, Allegoria 1, 2021. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 7) Omar Victor Diop, Trayon Martin, 2012. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 8) Omar Victor Diop, Ministry of Labour and National Service, Liverpool: 1949, 2018. Courtesy of and commissioned by Autograph, London. 9) Omar Victor Diop, Frederick Douglass 1818–1895. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris. 10) Omar Victor Diop, Thiaroye 1944. From Liberty, 2016. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.
Other page images: 11) Omar Victor Diop, Jean-Baptiste Belley 1746 - 1805. From Project Diaspora, 2014. Courtesy of Galerie MAGNIN-A, Paris.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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