An eye. It is perhaps what best defines Badara Ndiaye. An eye that observes, understands and anticipates, capable of perceiving in every detail the element that will make a sculpture or a piece of furniture balanced, singular and alive. His work is guided by an instinctive understanding of proportion, rhythm and material, but also by a fascination for the simplicity of lines and the intensity of primary colours.

From these apparently simple elements, Ndiaye constructs forms that can be both baroque and remarkably restrained, exuberant yet perfectly controlled. His imagination moves freely from canvas to plywood, from furniture to sculpture, and ultimately to any material capable of catching his attention and becoming, under his hands, something unexpected. Nothing seems to be merely decorative: each line, colour, texture and volume participates in a larger visual language.

There is in his work a constant dialogue between the familiar and the surprising, between the rigor of structure and the freedom of imagination. His creations invite us to look again; to discover how much richness can emerge from the most elementary forms.

To accept his invitation to this extraordinary visual voyage is ultimately to enter a world where materials, colours and forms become carriers of memory and identity. It is to experience, through his singular gaze, a celebration of Blackness in its many expressions rooted in Africa, yet open to the world, universal and endlessly alive.

Sitor Senghor

Artistic Director of AKAA Art Fair