1969 born in Dakar, Senegal.
 
Soly Cissé is a painter, draughtsman, and sculptor from Dakar, Senegal.  His paintings are at once pictorial and graphic, rooted in the culture of his hometown, and loaded with autobiographical content.  Cissé creates fantasy worlds where figures emerge from chaos and disharmony.  His figures merge animal and human forms into strange, improbable hybrids wearing mortuary masks, as if they are deities of Cissé’s magical world.  Linear patterns, checkerboards, and sequences of letters and numbers bring tension to his work, while also referencing both barcodes and mystical numerologies.
 
Cissé grew up in a time where the people of Dakar began to clean, repair, and beautify the city’s neighborhoods after a tumultuous period of riots and political discontent.  Art became a vehicle for social activism for the disenfranchised youth of Dakar.  Soly Cissé’s art remains entrenched in the tensions that brought about this movement in Senegal, tensions of traditional versus modern, what is familiar versus what is imagined. 

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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1996 Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Dakar

2015 Galerie des Tuiliers, Bruxelles, Belgique
2014 Universe/Univers, Hôtel de Ville, Dakar, Sénégal

Dreams, M.I.A. Gallery, Seattle, USA

Volta Art Fair, Solo Show, M.I.A. Gallery, New York, USA 2013 Tornabuoni, Paris, France

Galerie des Tuiliers, Lyon, France 2012 Lost World, M.I.A Gallery, Seattle, USA

2009 Solycolor, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
2008 IFAN Museum, Dakar, Sénégal
2007 Soly Cissé – Être pour devenir, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris,

France
2006 Soly Cissé – Oeuvres Récentes, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris,

France

Soly Cisse, Célébration du centenaire de la naissance de Senghor, Verson, France

2005 Soly Cissé – Le Monde perdu, Centro per l ́Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy

Agence Française de Développement, Paris, France Champs Libres Afrique, ORCCA, Marnay sur Seine, France

2004 ARCO 2004, Madrid, Spain
Animismes, Galerie DA Vinci, Nice, France

2002 Multicultural 2002, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Biennale DAK'ART, Dakar, Sénégal KuBa Kunsthalle, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

2001 Galerie ATISS, Dakar, Sénégal

Prix de la francophone, Montreal, Canada

1999 Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany 1997 Centre culturel Francais, Dakar, Sénégal

ETHAN COHEN NEW YORK
251 W 19TH ST, NEW YORK, NY 10011 T 212-625-1250

ETHAN COHEN KuBe 192 VERPLANCK AVE, BEACON, NY 12508 T 845-765-8988 www.ecfa.com ecfa@ecfa.com

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

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2014 Gallery le sud, Zurich, Switzerland

2015 Lumières d’Afriques, African Artists for Development, Palais de Chaillot, Paris, France

2014 Beirut Art Fair, Beyrouth, Liban
Art Miami, Ethan Cohen New York, Miami, USA

2007 TRANS CAPE – Contemporary African Art on the move, Cape Town, South Africa

Terre Noire – Ousmane Sow et les tendances de la sculpture africaine d’aujourd’hui, Musée Départemental Maurice Denis, Saint- Germain-en-Laye, France

2006 Africa Remix/Contemporary Art of a Continent, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2005

2004-2005

2004

7ème Biennale de l’art africain contemporain Dak’Art 2006, Dakar, Sénégal
Des Hommes sans Histoire?, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris,

France
Artistes du Sénégal, Musée Dapper, Paris, France
Expressions africaines, Printemps, Bd Haussmann, Paris, France Foire Internationale des Arts Derniers: Les Afriques 2, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
Africa Urbis: Perspectives Urbaines, Musée des Arts Derniers, Paris, France
Création contemporaine au Sénégal, Galerie Le Manège, Dakar, Sénégal
AfricaRemix/ZeitgenössischeKunsteiner Kontinents/Contemporary Art of a Continent/Art contemporain d’un continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France L’Art dans la ville - Out in Africa, Saint-étienne, France
ARCO 2004, Madrid, Spain
Animismes, Galerie Da Vinci, Nice, France