Modou Dieng, a native of Senegal, will return to Denison as a Vail visiting artist this month. In addition to working with students and providing critiques, Dieng will give a lecture on "Transgressions, African Contemporary Art and the Postcolonial World: The Work of Modou Dieng" at 7 p.m. on Tuesday (April 25) in room 104 of the Cleveland Hall Annex. The lecture, which is sponsored by the art department and the Vail Fund, is free and open to the public.

A native of Dakar, Dieng graduated from Senegal's National Fine Arts School in 1995. Now living in the United States, he has participated in exhibitions in Senegal, Europe and the United States. He was featured in the exhibition "Fusion: The Art of Contemporary Africa" at New York's Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art and in "A Continent Away: Multiple Identities in Contemporary Aftrican Art" at the Brush Art Gallery in Lowell, Mass.

Dieng's art conveys his experiences of contemporary urban life as well as international politics and culture according to Assistant Professor Joanna Grabski who hosted his previous visit to Denison in 2002.

Dieng was lauded for a work, "Manhattan and Me," which was exhibited in "Dak/Art 2002," the fifth biennale of African art in Dakar. "Without showing a single puff of smoke or an American flag, the artist presents the reality of post-September 11 New York City," said the Mail & Guardian writer Sue Williamson. "Here are the familiar canyons of Manhattan, black-and-white photographs of the facades of buildings angled upwards. It is a view, though, seen through distinctly African eyes. The facades, no longer bland and uninterrupted, are patched by shards of metal painted in bright colors, squatter-camp style, and newspaper cuttings give context. The cheerful richness of the colors suggests this breaching of the impregnable might have an unexpected upside."

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- Senegalese artist Modou Dieng will speak on "Transgressions, African Contemporary Art and the Postcolonial World: The Work of Modou Dieng"; 7 p.m., Tuesday (April 25), Room 104, Cleveland Hall Annex (201 N. Mulberry St.). Free and open to the public. Call 740-587-6596 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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