Modou Dieng Yacine was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, a French colonial establishment built in the 17th century. Dieng opens the dialogue between Africa and the West, the cultures and values that unite us, as Senegalese, but above all as African.
A series of paintings dedicated to the black soldiers of Africa and America, and especially the Senegalese tirailleurs. 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 bodies of the Senegalese tirailleurs.
Through this series of "mixed media" works, the artist is imbued with the identity of these young black heroes, giving them a tour of painting, then a brush, in his abstract style resulting from an obvious American influence.
The artist advocates an intergenerational and democratic dialogue, but above all a dialogue of peace. It is for him a hymn to Africa, proud of its ancestors, Dieng is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of Dakar, Senegal, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute.
During his artistic career, Dieng was also a professor and then director of the Department of Arts and Painting for 10 years at the Pacific Northwestern College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He is the co-founder of the “Worksound” space in Portland, a collaborative space between American West Coast artists and international artists.
Dieng exhibits his works in art galleries based in North America (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles), and Latin America (Colombia, Mexico). His works are also present in the collections of the Studio Museum in New York, at 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 renaissance center, where he continues to focus on the role of curator and studio practice. He is currently the main curator of Blackpuffin and exhibits his own works internationally.