Senegalese artist Issa Samb, founder of Laboratoire Agit-Art, dies at 72

Issa Samb, the Senegalese artist who co-founded the influential collective Laboratoire Agit-Art in 1973, passed away on April 25, 2017 in Dakar. His death marks the loss of a pivotal figure in African contemporary art. Samb's practice combined objects, his own physical presence, and audience participation, merging African traditions with avant-garde approaches. The Laboratoire Agit-Art collective, formed in opposition to President Léopold Sédar Senghor's artistic ideologies, emphasized process, experimentation, and agitation through collaborative work. After authorities demolished the group's squatted premises in 1983, Samb established the TENQ workshop in Dakar in 1996. His career gained increasing international recognition with exhibitions at London's Whitechapel Gallery in 1995, inIVA in 2004 and 2014, and Oslo's OCA in 2013. Samb participated in documenta (13) in 2012 and had a retrospective at Dakar's National Art Gallery in 2010. ArtReview published a feature on his influence in November 2014.