Modou Dieng Yacine

Modou Dieng Yacine was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, a French colonial city built in the 17th century. As a Senegalese, but above all as an African, Modou Dieng Yacine opens the dialogue between Africa and the West, the cultures and values that unite us. The series presented is dedicated to the black soldiers of Africa and America, and particularly the Senegalese riflemen. 

Indeed, between 1939 and 1945, more than 300,000 Africans from the colonies of French West Africa (AOF) and French Equatorial Africa (AEF) were incorporated, for the most part by force, into the Senegalese riflemen corps. More than an example for him, the artist immerses himself in the identity of these young black heroes through this "mixed media" series in an abstract style that he says is American influenced. Modou Dieng Yacine is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts in Dakar, Senegal, and holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute. 

Modou Dieng Yacine's work can be found in the collections of the Studio Museum in New York, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, and the Kranzberg Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri. Dieng now lives in Chicago, Illinois, a city he considers a new center of renaissance, where he focuses on his creative work as well as curating. He is currently the lead curator of Blackpuffin, an exhibition that will take place this summer 2023 at the Seattle Museum of Art.