Omar Ba's 'Power of Objects' at Wilde Gallery, Geneva

Omar Ba, the Senegalese-born painter based between Geneva and Dakar, presents a new series of paintings at Wilde Gallery in Geneva from January 18 to March 8, 2019. The exhibition marks the gallery's rebranding from Art Bärtschi & Cie to Wilde Gallery, which will soon open a new space in Basel. Ba's work blends human, animal, vegetable, and sacred realms, with masks surmounting human bodies as a bridge between worlds. Key works include 'Processus de mystification 1,' a large format with pearlescent tones and arabesques evoking trunks, vines, or umbilical cords, and 'Exotic Fruit on a Black Background,' which merges a grenade, a scarab-like insect, and a pineapple. Ba's palette features blacks, browns, grays, and beiges, with new darker blues, and motifs of tiny white or gold circles creating a shagreen-like texture. The artist values imperfection, using supports like Canson paper or kraft paper on flexible plastic, with drips, free brushstrokes, and fingerprints as traces of the creative process.