In this episode of The Art Bystander, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar 'is joined by Alexandre Diop — one of the most compelling and radical voices in contemporary art. Diop's art operates in the tradition of Arte Povera, but is equally shaped by his Afro-European roots, Berlin's rave scene, and Vienna's expressionist legacy. At once poetic and political, his works are raw, deeply autobiographical, and grounded in the belief that art should speak directly — "from the street, to the street."...

In “Alexandre Diop: Art, Play, Rage.” the recognition-award winner of the STRABAG Artaward International 2024 takes us on a captivating journey through his creative process. From frustration with painting to his unique blend of sculpture and imagery, Diop shares how he collects materials from abandoned places and integrates their stories into his works. His art is marked by anger, love, hierarchy, and the drive to explore humanity. Experience an artist who not only creates works but also interprets our world in new, daring ways.

Catalogue for the exhibition The Beauty of Diversity. The exhibition showcased the ALBERTINA's contemporary holdings and new acquisitions, focusing on works by historically marginalized artists, including women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people of color, and autodidacts, to challenge traditional collecting practices and reframe the definition of beauty in art.

The STRABAG Art Award is an international art prize that has been awarded by the STRABAG Art Forum since 1994 to promote young artists in the fields of painting and drawing. The prize has been advertised internationally since 2009 and is one of the most highly endowed private art prizes for painting and drawing in Austria.

Catalogue for the exhibition Sterblich Sein (Being Mortal) in Dom Museum, Vienna. The exhibition deals with the most inevitable part of every existence. Juxtaposing works of art that span a cultural-historical arc from the Middle Ages to the present, "Being Mortal" traces the deep meaning of death in individual as well as collective and socio-political contexts. The show focuses on intimate, personal approaches as well as the public, political role of dying and the process of facing death.

For the first time, contemporary art is presented in the premises of the historical wax models at the Josephinum. On view is a selection of works by French-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop. Since its founding in 1785, the Josephinum has housed the Florentine collection of anatomical wax models. This unique collection is complemented by colored drawings and object descriptions, and served as a teaching tool for training military physicians and surgeons. Diop’s work combines a wide variety of materials. Latex, textiles, wood, books, papers, photographs, string, nails, and animal fibers combine to create “object paintings” in relief. Art historical references, human anatomy and an independent artistic strategy enter into a dialogue with the objects of the 18th century.

Between Frieze, NADA, Spring/Break, the Independent, etc., you may think that it’s all about the art fairs in New York this week. But galleries never neglect to capitalize on the influx of audience—and the collectors in town for the major auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. In fact, don’t be surprised if the longest lineup of art lovers is winding outside David Zwirner’s largest Yayoi Kusama showcase yet. In New York and beyond, here are the shows that should be at the top of your must-see list.

Jeffrey Deitch recently lifted the veil on a new solo exhibition by Diop, entitled Hood Rich. The show seeks to dismantle the stereotypes often associated to people inhabiting environments labelled as the “ghetto”, such as poverty, institutional racism, disenfranchisement and marginalization. The works in Hood Rich are notably inspired by a variety of sources, from African realities and experiences across the U.S. and Europe, the artistic processes of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti to hip hop and trap music.

Alexandre Diop’s new body of work in Hood Rich pays homage to the inherent creativity, resourcefulness, code of conduct and capacity to adapt of people inhabiting environments considered “ghetto” or labeled as inner-city communities, often stereotypically associated with poverty, institutional racism, disenfranchisement and marginalization. Diop elaborates: The term “hood rich” means that “you made it,” but it also connotes a remaining in the hood, albeit not geographically, but rather in terms of values and belief systems. My work goes beyond stereotypes and does not concern itself with an outsider’s perspective. Instead, it forces you to respect the creativity and ability to adapt of any supposedly marginalized community that nevertheless creates value, meaning and a true intellectual and tangible contribution to contemporary society...

Der franko-senegalesische Künstler Alexandre Diop (*1995) hat sein Studium an der Wiener Akademie der bildenden Künste noch nicht abgeschlossen, doch seine Karriere hat abgehoben: Das Rubell Museum in Miami widmet ihm bis November eine große Solo-Schau, die Albertina kaufte bereits mehrere Werke von ihm an. Und auch das Josephinum, das an die MedUni Wien angegliederte medizinhistorische Museum, zeigt ab kommendem Mittwoch Diops Werke im Dialog mit den anatomischen Modellen seiner Sammlung, die schon oft Künstlerinnen und Künstler inspirierte. „Gemeinsam mit den Shariat Collections“, wie es in der Ankündigung heißt.

The Rubell Museum DC announced today that it will open two new exhibitions as part of a museum-wide reinstallation on November 2nd. Singular Views: 25 Artists highlights the work of 25 contemporary artists from across the U.S. and around the world through solo presentations. Opening concurrently is Alexandre Diop: Jooba Jubba, l’Art du Defi, the Art of Challenge, featuring work created by the artist during his 2022 residency at the Rubell Museum. Both exhibitions are on view through October 2024.

The works of Alexandre Diop present a multitude of cultural, socio-political, and art-historical references that draw us deeply into the artist’s mind. Considering the musical and literary references, his use of symbolism and metaphor takes us beyond the immediate texture that defines the aesthetics of his work that’s created with discarded, damaged, and forgotten materials. His references allude to the deep intellectual space that is an integral layer of his practice and constitutes an essential part of the works’ materiality—conceptually and based on ontological explorations...

This catalog is published on the occasion of the exhibition Alexandre Diop at the Rubell Museum, Miami, FL. The catalogue includes an essay by Mara Niang as well as an interview between Alexandre Diop and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Earlier this year, the artist Alexandre Diop—whose figurative bas relief compositions combining found materials and painted elements have become highly sought-after among in-the-know collectors—took up a residency at the Rubell Museum Miami, creating some of his largest and most complex works to date. For the Vienna-based artist, whose practice involves sourcing objects from city streets, Miami provided a wealth of material to work with, while the residency allowed him to be fully immersed in his studio practice...

Over time, they have proved their ability to “make” artists’ reputations. This is known as the “Rubell effect”: the quick valuation of new talents. This year, the French-Senegalese artist who lived in Vienna, Alexandre Diop (born in 1995), was hosted by the Rubells for three months and is the subject of an exhibition as part of their collection.

The Vienna-based artist paired with mentor Kehinde Wiley for a recent Reiffers Art Initiative exhibition during Paris+ and will show new work at the Rubell Museum during Art Basel Miami Beach.

The large industrial door suddenly squeaks open, abruptly drawing my attention to the two gloved men and a tiny forklift pulling inside the studio Alexandre Diop has been working in at the Rubell Museum. I’m intrigued as they start unloading some pieces of Miami onto the studio floor. I am sitting with him and looking over at the newfound local wares to be added to the piles of wooden palettes, leather straps, cloth, pieces of metal, paint bottles, and even palm tree stalks scattered around...

The group exhibition The New African Portraiture. Shariat Collections brings together leading figures from a generation of thrilling figurative artists of African origin. The more than 20 exhibiting artists are based on the African continent and across the diaspora. They explore complex questions of identity, aesthetics, and art history. Through compelling portraiture, their work invites interrogation of how the Black figure has often been misrepresented or overlooked in the Western painting tradition. The exhibition is curated by a luminary of contemporary African art, the internationally renowned writer, journalist, and art expert Ekow Eshun. He writes for numerous art magazines, is the former Director of the Institute for Contemporary Art London and Chairman of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group. His publications Africa State of Mind and Black Gold of the Sun have been nominated for the Lucie Photo Book Prize and the Orwell Prize, respectively.

Materials that one might consider waste, Alexandre Diop brings to the fore. Hershey's wrappers, cookie jars, containers, vessels are part of the reality he disrupts and elevates. Featuring political and literary figures in his painting-material assemblage, Diop steps beyond boundaries of politics and medium to consider fluid materiality and challenge art elitism. These materials age, they hold history, and they carry "a scent of wreckage as we are asked to accept the damage and move into a newly emerging reality."

‘La prochaine fois, le feu’ (Next time, fire) is the name of Alexandre Diop's new exhibition in Paris (until 19 November). The 27-year-old Franco-Senegalese artist, based in Vienna, Austria, is embarking on a promising career. He is mentored by the American artist Kehinde Wiley.

"La Prochaine Fois, Le Feu" is the third art book from Reiffers Art Initiatives that chronicles the 2022 edition of the mentorship between artists Alexandre Diop and Kehinde Wiley. Through an exhibition at the Acacias Art Center, this book reveals a rich plastic dialogue between a young talent from the French art scene and an international figure in contemporary art. For this new edition of mentoring, the African-American artist Kehinde Wiley, famous portraitist of President Barack Obama, has chosen to support the French-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop. The exhibition "La Prochaine Fois, Le Feu" traces the creative process of a young self-taught artist, who through large format materializes his work in multiple techniques.

An encounter with Alexandre Diop through the eyes of Paul-Emmanuel Reiffers. A discussion about the artist's work and the influence of his mentor Kehinde Wiley, immersed in the exhibition ‘LA PROCHAINE FOIS, LE FEU’ (NEXT TIME, FIRE) at the Acacias Art Centre. ‘As soon as I arrived at this place, I had a vision of working in large formats [...] Having this opportunity means being able to have a political impact. For me, art is a tool.’ - Alexandre Diop

Alexandre Diop talks about “image-objects” when describ- ing his work: his first step in the act of creation is to gather all sorts of discarded objects and materials during long walks through abandonded places near his home. Born in Paris, in 1995, to a Senegalese father, Diop moved to Berlin at the age of 18, and now lives and works in Vienna. In Diop’s eyes, Kehinde Wiley, who is probably best-known for his portrait of Barak Obama, represents a model of Black success. They have in common Dakar, where Wiley founded the residency Black Rock, but also a dialogue with past masters as well as with the contemporary world...

As part of the second edition of its Mentorship Programme, Reiffers Art Initiatives presents ‘LA PROCHAINE FOIS, LE FEU’ (Next Time, Fire), an exhibition by the young Franco-Senegalese talent Alexandre Diop. This is a visit to his Vienna studio.

Freundlich und besonnen führte uns der in Paris aufgewachsene Sohn eines senegalesischen Filmemachers und einer französischen Sozialarbeiterin durch sein Reich. Er erklärte uns in einer Mischung aus Deutsch, Französisch und Englisch seine Welt aus postkolonialer Literatur, Basquiat-Liebe und Kokoschka-Verehrung. Riesige Bilder hingen an den Wänden, eigentlich Reliefs aus altem Verpackungsmaterial, Dosenresten, Gummiringerln, Fotos und Buchseiten...

A report by Judith Benhamou

Vienna was also the launchpad for Alexandre Diop, who at the age of just 25 is in the midst of making it big in his career. In fall 2021 Diop featured at Art Basel. Known for their impeccable instincts, the Rubells already own a number of his pictures thanks to dealer Amir Shariat, and the next 20 works that Diop produces have already been sold. The hype surrounding him is similar to the buzz around Boafo. Both artists are represented by Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. But even before art enters the picture, Diop’s biography already says a thousand words.

Diop's works on display in Milan are based on the artist's autobiography and take the form of a single work, a sum of episodes that, together, find their dimension. It is as if each individual painting only makes sense in relation to its community. This too can be considered a form of activism.

Alexandre Diop is a Franco-Senegalese multitasking artist whose process is guided by experimentation and historical observation of our respective societies. Employing many different mediums including dance, music, film, and literature… He is best known for his singular work methods that occupy a zone between painting, sculpture, and relief, using everyday objects such as books, photographs, metal, and wood, as well as fire, and other elemental compounds like rust, and animal hair; Alexandre Diop’s permanent radicality pushes the public to a new experience of political and dreamlike systems through what he calls his “Object Images”...

Catalogue for the Le Mouton Noir exhibition