In the history of art and literature, there are examples of creators who hid under other identities in order to produce, often differently, to feel freer, to escape public judgment, to assume and live several identities, several lives. Sometimes, the styles and ways of a single person can be so different that it becomes difficult for the creator to defend them all. So we multiply identities to find unity. And the mystery can remain hidden for a long time.

In Khady Pouye's case, the solution came fairly quickly, but we're sure the cards will still be shuffled.

Living in a picture-framing workshop, working as a carpenter alongside several artists, our painter has drawn inspiration from many sources. Highly productive, he feels an overflow of energy that he can't channel. In 2008, he created his first identity, using his wife's name to silence doubts and critics.
Five years later, a new inspiration takes hold. His painting is changing: this painting, which seems to us to be indicative of the renewal, is very telling. Here, his avatar of the moment, a blurred, dancing female spirit, presents a yellow vase to the young man camped solidly on the left. Khady Pouye introduces us to Alioune Badara Diop, and settles into the world of creation.

In this exhibition, we'll discover paintings from the first period, when the artist signed with the pseudonym Khady Pouye. Others, more numerous, are from the current period, signed with her own name.

The two expressions are very different. There is a need to distinguish, to create separation. Over time, painting becomes calmer and brighter: the subject is often at the center of the picture, illuminating the rest. The inspiration is obvious: everything is a tribute to his eldest and colleague, the late Mouhamadou Douts Ndolye, with whom-as he says himself-“he shared the same Dakar living environment {Médina and Gueule Tapée}, the same passion for art, the same dream of light”, and for years he prepared all the frames for him, and for years Douts advised and stimulated him on the path to painting. It's only natural that the artist should now feel possessed by a luminous spirit that dictates all his creations.

By Mauro Petroni

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