PRESENTATION OF XAADIM
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1988 in Guédiawaye (Dakar), Cheikh Hamadou Bamba Mbow dit Xaadim grew up in a family of artists. His passion for art has followed him like a shadow since he was very young. After a master's degree in law, he decided to devote himself fully to photography.
Surrounded by a father who was an art lover and collector and who devoted himself to sculpting recycled objects after his retirement, by aunts and uncles who were craftsmen and creators (textile painting, shoemaking, dressmaking etc...), Xaadim was immersed very early in a creative environment that strongly influenced him.
Already as a young man, he was part of a group of graphic artists in his neighborhood and it is in 2011 that he began to paint on canvas while continuing his law studies at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar.
With his Master 2 in public law in his pocket, he continues to devote himself to his passion: art.
He started photography as an amateur and began to be noticed in the artistic environment of Dakar. He participates in major exhibitions organized by gallery owners and during major cultural events such as PartCours, the Dakar Biennale.
Today, Xaadim is a complete artist from painting to photography.
In the beginning, he started to photograph subjects and created series such as "Impressions of Time" (immortalizing the beauty of our elders) so expressive. Followed by Debbo Ko Lekki (Women trees), Bekkor, Ramatou, etc....
For the past two years, he has been exploring the association of what he calls digital graphics mixing the acrylic brush transferred to digital with photography through collages. He mixes several mediums to create a work of art!
"My photography is strongly influenced by painting, which I also practice. I see photography with the soul of a painter.
Photography for me is not an end in itself. The most important thing is all the poetry behind it, the story it can tell, the moment or the instant it captures and that it fixes forever in the time that passes without ever stopping".
Xaadim
Collective exhibitions
-
"Bët set na Open our eyes!" from September 30 to November 28, 2020, 1st virtual exhibition on the Africartshow
The collective exhibition is the result of a two-month artistic residency of 14 African visual artists and photographers who questioned themselves, following the pandemic, about their vision of the world of today and tomorrow .
-
"The African Women's Parliament" in Bilbao, Spain from October 14 to November 4 brought together 13 African photographic artists after its presentation in Dakar and Saint-Louis (see below)
-
"Fent Bokk", shared in Wolof at the Théodore Monod museum in Dakar from December 7, 2019 to January 31, 2020
In addition to the Dakar stage of the itinerant panafrican project "Lend me your dream", the exhibition was devoted to the emerging Senegalese scene.
-
"The African Women's Parliament" at the Musée de la Femme Henriette Bathily in Dakar from July 18 to August 30, 2019
13 African photographers questioned the status of women. With "Debbo ko lekki", Xaadim made a poetic analogy between woman and nature sublimating her place in society
-
Exhibition as part of the Dakar Contemporary Art Biennale OFF in 2018
-
"I saw" at Galerie Kemboury as part of the 5th edition of Partcours from December 2 to 17, 2016
The artist Mata Nataal and Xaadim presented a universe of black and white portraits, faces, looks, mainly of children.
-
Exhibition as part of the Dakar Contemporary Art Biennial OFF in 2016
-
"Strength and pride", retrospective of 30 years of photography by Angèle Etoundi Essamba at the Théodore Monod museum (ex IFAN) from February 19 to March 20, 2015 with the collective "Sunu Nataal"
