Ibou Ndoye: Leboone Lipone

A reception, open to the public, will be held on Friday, October 21, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with remarks at 7:00 p.m. The Silva Gallery is located on the School’s campus at 112 W. Delaware Ave., Pennington, New Jersey. For further information, call the Silva Gallery at 609–737–4133 or email gallery director Dolores Eaton at [email protected].

Born in West Africa’s most progressive capital city, Dakar, Senegal, Ibrahima Ndoye has combined modernism and traditionalism to create a style unique to himself. Ibrahima, commonly known as “Ibou,” grew up as the oldest child in a family of four boys in the suburbs of Dakar. Ibou’s mother made her living as a dressmaker while his grandmother worked as a tie-dye artist. Regularly surrounded by colorful African textiles and fabrics, it is not surprising that Ibou says he “socialized with art and cohabited with colors” from a very young age.

“The mediums I use to create my paintings resonate with the stories; that is the reason why I paint on glass windows, carpets, canvases and whatever the environment provides. Patterns, forms, motifs, lines, signs, colors, and scraps of fabric are part of the visual language that enables me to articulate the stories of the voiceless.” Ndoye says. Embracing the shutdown of the pandemic as a time for him to vigorously create, much of the work in this show was made during the past three years and will be shown to the public for the first time. Ndoye’s art is inspired by stories from an immemorial oral tradition and African street scenes. “Leboone Lipone” is a Wolof call and response word that means once upon a time. This expression is used by storytellers to engage the community in artistic conversations, which is what Ndoye’s work does in this show.

Image: Ibou Ndoye, The Foulani Flute Player, Acrylic and African fabric on canvas, 2017