373 Taché Hall
University of Manitoba
(Fort Garry Campus)
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2M6
E. annabinta.diallo@umanitoba.ca
T. 204-474-8836
Education
- Transart Institute, Berlin, University of Plymouth, School of Art and Media (UK) MFA in Creative Practice 2011-2013
- Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Graduate certificate in Digital Technologies in Design Art Practices, Design and Computation Arts 2007-2009
- University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB BFA Honours 2002-2006
Creative work & Research
Anna Binta Diallo examines visual cultures through the lenses of memory, nostalgia, and otherness. Inspired by her own life journey, at the crossroads of Franco-Manitoban and Senegalese heritages, her practice focuses on issues relating to identity. Diallo’s practice spans video, sculpture, and installation, each firmly rooted in collage as both a medium and a conceptual underpinning. Through collage, her technique of predilection, she envisions cultural patrimony as a constellation in constant reconfiguration. Recollections, dreams, and forgotten stories converge in a personal encounter with global issues such as celebration of diasporic identities, consequences of historical traumas, the uprooting provoked by migration, and the need to attend to the symbiotic relations that connect us to other forms of life on Earth.
Many of her recent projects explore how visual culture influences the formation of identity. “Wanderings”, took the form of a large scale, site-specific installation, where she created an immersive environment with a multitude of characters. Of her research process, Diallo writes, “Casting a wide net on our Collective History, I reinterpreted folk stories and reimagined or reused them in my own way to create new mythologies. Using archives, books, found imagery, the Internet, memory, and oral traditions, I created a series of new images that can be continuously re-organized.” Employing a mix of both collage and sculpture, the silhouettes of human and animal forms are constructed from a variety of source material. Spanning science, literature, and historical photography, the characters within the staging reference a diverse set of stories – extending to creation myths, autobiographical accounts and forgotten histories.
In Diallo's “Voyageur/Almanacs”, she researched the connections and entanglements between human life, nature, and our ecological surroundings, through imaginative visual storytelling, and printed mixed media. This work has led her to think more about land, maps, geography, and geology; how it has been divided, and how it changes.
Diallo is currently researching and developing a new body of work, where she is focusing on historic and topographic map-making processes for new sculptural works entitled “Topographies”. The crust of the earth is divided by sedimentary deposits. Using this concept as a metaphor, she intends to recreate new forms that invoke the many layers of what we consider land, and its layered histories, material cultures, and human/non-human flourishing that happens within a place over time.
Solo Exhibitions (Refereed/Curated)
2024 (Forthcoming) Topographies, Centre d'exposition du Vieux Presbytère de Saint-Bruno, October 20 - December 01, Sain-Bruno, Quebec.
2023 (Forthcoming) Topographies, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, June 04-October 01, Toronto, Ontario.
2022 Errances: un retour, Maison de la Culture Claude-Léveillée, June 13 - August 22, Montréal, QC.
2022 Voyageur/Almanac, TOWARDS January 21-March 5, Toronto, Ontario
2021 Wanderings Museum London, April 03-August 29, London, Ontario.
2020 Wanderings, Galerie Monkland, Centre Culturel de Notre-Dame-De-Grâce, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, November 27 2020 February 10 2021, Montréal, QC.
2020 Wanderings, Notions Of Place – From Belonging To Displacement Part I, Matkalla maan keskipisteeseen Journeys to the Heartland / Central Finland Exhibition, Curated by Rickard Borgström, Keuruu Museum, September 18, 2020-January 21, 2021 Keuruu, Finland.
2020 Wanderings, Access Gallery, Curated by Katie Belcher, September 26 - 30, Vancouver, British Columbia.
2019 Wanderings, TOWARDS, October 4 - November 2, Toronto, Ontario.
2016 palimpseste, MAI (Montréal Arts Interculturels), February 18 – March 19, Montreal, Quebec.
2015 neither nor, Seagram Gallery, Centaur Theatre, September 22 – October 19
Invited artist at to accompany the play The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God written & directed by Djanet Sears, Montreal, Quebec.
2010 Yobbaalema (Emmène-moi avec toi, Take me with you), April 29 - March 29, Invited artist at the Colloque international Les Discours littéraires, cinématographiques et artistiques de l’altérité et de la mémoire, La Galerie, Université de Saint-Boniface, Manitoba.
Duo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2022 (Forthcoming) Rencontres de Bamako, La Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, Bamako, Mali.
2023 (Forthcoming) The Excess is Ritual, Dunlop Art Gallery, Curated by Noor Bangu, January 15- March 28, Regina, Saskatchewan.
2022 Shapeshifter, Nuit Blanche, The Space Between Us, Curated by Dr. Julie Nagam, October 02, Toronto Commissioned sculptural installation on Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario.
2022 Habiter le monde : esquisse d'une rencontre, La maison des cultures urbaines de Dakar, May 21- June 04, Dak'art Off, la Biennale de Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
2021 from the earth we grow Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, Ontario. With Couzyn van Heuvelen, Anna Binta Diallo & Sandy Williams. October 12, 2021 - April 1, 2022, Bowmanville, Ontario.
2021 Habiter le monde, Centre CLARK, Curated by Moridja Kitenge Banza, May 20 – June 19, Montreal, QC
2021 the cut, the tear and the remix: contemporary collage and black futures, The McMaster Museum of Art, in partnership with Nia Centre for the Arts, (April 21- June 21), Ontario.
2021 Habiter le monde, esquisse d’une rencontre, Centre CLARK, Curated by Moridja Kitenge Banza, May, 19 – July 20, Montreal, QC.
2020 Group exhibition, QUADrature: Quelque part, autrement Galerie de l’UQAM, Ariane De Blois guest curator with faye mullen, Mona Sharma, Anna Binta Diallo et Leila Zelli, October 23 – January 14 2021, Montreal, QC.
2020 Wanderings, Notions Of Place – From Belonging To Displacement Part II, Matkalla maan keskipisteeseen /Journeys to the Heartland / Central Finland Exhibition: Jyväskylä Art Museum, September 18, 2020-January 21, 2021, Finland.
2016 Synesthésias d'été | Anna Binta Diallo et Montag, Group exhibition, Les Escales Improbables de Montréal, Saturday May 28 - October 5th, Jardins Gamelin, Montréal, QC.
Screenings
2021Negotiations II, Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, Toronto, Ontario.
2020 Maps, Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, Toronto, Ontario.
2017 Negotiations II, Maps, and Nostalgia Diaorama screen at the 'Moving Images Showcase' at the Metro Studio Theatre, September 23; at the Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires (PC/Cp) gathering in Victoria, British Columbia.
2015 Negotiations screens at the 'Trans-ideology: Nostalgia' at Museum of Contemporary Art : MOCA TAIPEI, November 9 - December 20, Taipei, Taiwan.
Public art projects
2022 “Landscapes” Artwork mural installation commissioned for The Royal Bank of Canada’s Main Branch, Union Station, Toronto.
2022 Creation of a work of art integrated into the architecture of the Verdun Auditorium, Montreal.
2021 Perspectives Excentrées – Zocalo, centre d'artistes en art imprimé, Carré Isidore-Hurteau, Longueuil, August - 5 August 29, Québec.
2021The Ville-Marie borough of Montreal, MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) and the Société de développement commercial (SDC) Village Montreal presents a group exhibition at Serge-Garant Park - June 2021 - April 2022.
Collections
- EQ Bank
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Scotia Bank
- Private Collections
- La Galerie, Université de Saint-Boniface, Manitoba
Residencies
2013 Banff Artist in Residence, September - October, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta.
2014 The Universe and Other Systems with Shary Boyle, July - August, Thematic residency at The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta.
2019 Distributed Identities with Deanna Bowen, Brendan Fernandes & Tarah Aisha Willis, Thematic residency at The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta.
2021 Centre SAGAMIE Research and Creation Artist Residency, Alma, Québec
2020 (POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19) Archipelago Art Residency in Korpo, (AARK) Korpo, Finland
2020 Selected artist for the Mission Dakar Biennale 2020, Conseil des arts de Montréal and Centre CLARK with artist Moridja Kitenge Banza as guest curator
Awards & Grants
2022 Sobey Art Award - Long list
2022 Nominated finalist Visual Artist of the Year, 6th Edition of the Dynasty Gala
2021 Barbara Spohr Memorial Awards. Awarded by the Walter Phillips Gallery to a recent Banff Centre Visual Arts residency alumni.
2021 One of three shortlisted artists by invitation by the city of Montreal, for a public artwork in the atrium of Verdun Auditorium
2021 Canada Council for the Arts Explore and Create - Research and Creation Grant - Concept to Realization
2021 Black Designers of Canada Excellence Award – work as a visual artist and designer
2020 Selected as one of 150 Franco-Manitobans to be celebrated by DREF (Direction des resources éducatives françaises) (Dref.mb.ca)
2020 Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Across Canada
2019 Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, Travel Grant for Visual Artists
2019 Canada Council for the Arts Explore and Create - Research and Creation Grant - Concept to Realization
2019 Finalist, Salt Spring National Art Prize, Salt Spring Island, BC
2019 Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Across Canada
2019 Recipient of the The Brenda and Jamie Mackie Endowed Fellowships for Visual Artists
2019 Recipient of the The Liz Crockford Artist Fund
2018 Recipient of a Francofonds grant for visual arts projects that promote the vitality of Francophone culture, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2014 Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant to Professionals in the Visual Arts
2011 Recipient of the Transart Institute Achievement Scholarship, Academic scholarship, Transat Institute, Berlin, University of Plymouth (UK).
2007 Recipient of the J.A. de Sève Entrance Fellowship for entrance graphic design portfolio, Academic scholarship, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
2006 Recipient of the prize - Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year Award for designs and illustrations in Poste Restante,
(Éditions du Blé) in the competition Brave New Words: The Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards.
2005 Recipient of the Francofonds academic study grant, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2004 Recipient of the Francofonds academic study grant, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2004 SigPac, Academic travel and study grant, University of Manitoba’s Student Union Awards, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Writing (Selection)
2020 Canadian Art “Instagram Take-Over” – 5 posts created for their account, week of September 21 - 25
2018 Two response articles published on Musagetes (ArsEverywhere), online platform and international arts organization concerning Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires (PC/Cp) 2017