Viyé Diba (born 1954) is a
Senegalese
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
mixed-media,
installation, and
performance artist.
He is known for using found, local, raw, and recycled materials in his work, reflecting his interest in environmental themes.
Diba's work has been included in several international exhibitions, including
Dak’Art,
Johannesburg Biennale
The worldwide enthusiasm for art biennials, triennials and other –ennial events rose during the 1990s and is continuing whereas this kind of exhibition format is not a new trend. Indeed, the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, followed in 1896 ...
, and Biennale d’
Abidjan, and was featured in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery in
Dakar, Senegal.
His work can be seen at the
North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...
,
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
, and the
National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.
Education
Diba received a baccalaureate degree in fine arts at the National School of Fine Arts in Dakar, Senegal in 1979, followed by an additional four-year degree in arts education at Senegal's National School of Art Education, also in Dakar.
Diba also received a PhD in Urban Geography from the
University of Nice in
Nice,
France, where his dissertation compared the impact of human activity on the natural environments of Dakar and Nice.
Career
Diba's career as a working artist began in the 1980s. While his earliest works were figurative, Diba's later works take a conceptual approach to interpreting the visual forms of "traditional" African art and exploring the materiality of urban spaces.
In 1998, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Dak'Art Biennial in 1998 for ''Echappement'', a mixed-media work on canvas.
Diba has served as a professor of visual arts at Senegal's National School of Fine Arts since 1986.
References
Living people
1954 births
Senegalese painters
Male painters
20th-century painters
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