Crowds and Community in Ibou Diagne's Painting

"La foule" (the crowd), "Seul ensemble" (alone, together), "Travail collectif" (collective work) and "La famille" (the family) are four titles by Ibou Diagne, all oil paintings on canvas, that point to one subject before the canvas is even seen: the group, the gathering, the collective. All four works are at Ge'eza's gallery in Point E, with the price given on request from each page.

A subject that keeps returning in the titles

A title sets a direction without ever standing in for the painting itself. In Ibou Diagne's work, several titles answer each other around the idea of the collective. "La foule," an oil on canvas measuring 180 x 120 cm from 2025, carries the subject in its very name. "Seul ensemble," an oil on canvas at 150 x 150 cm dated 2021, plays on a tension between solitude and belonging to a group. "Travail collectif," an oil on canvas at 100 x 100 cm from 2023, names directly an action done together. "La famille," an oil on canvas at 180 x 120 cm from 2025, is titled after the family unit itself. Four canvases, four sizes, one thread running through the choice of words.

That choice is no accident for this painter: several other titles in his work also point to market scenes. The word "group," whether it names a family, a crowd or work done together, returns across several titles in his production.

The pages for the four works

Two pages can be reached directly from here: La foule, an oil on canvas at 180 x 120 cm, 2025, currently available, and Seul ensemble, an oil on canvas at 150 x 150 cm, 2021, currently available. "Travail collectif" (100 x 100 cm, 2023) and "La famille" (180 x 120 cm, 2025) are also among the artist's works currently on show. Each page states the technique, the size, the year and the status, with a photograph of the painting.

Sizes from square to large rectangle

The four paintings cover a fairly wide range of sizes. "Seul ensemble," at 150 x 150 cm, is a large square that needs a clear wall and some distance to be read as a whole. "Travail collectif," at 100 x 100 cm, is a more manageable square, suited to an office or a wide hallway. "La foule" and "La famille," both at 180 x 120 cm, are imposing rectangular formats, meant for a living room wall or a reception space where the canvas has room to breathe. In every case, it is worth measuring the wall before deciding, leaving at least twenty centimetres of margin on each side.

Oil, patience and texture

All four canvases are oil on canvas, a technique Ibou Diagne works alongside acrylic depending on the piece. Oil dries slowly, which allows long work on a surface, blending passages and returning to a detail before the paint sets. In exchange, it asks for some patience after purchase: a recent oil painting keeps drying at depth for months, worth mentioning to the gallery before any additional framing or varnishing.

One subject, different years

"Seul ensemble" dates from 2021, while "Travail collectif," "La foule" and "La famille" came later, between 2023 and 2025. That gap in time shows the subject of the collective was not settled in a single period of Ibou Diagne's work: it returns, years later, with a new title and a new size, proof that a pictorial question can stay open for a long time in a painter's practice rather than close after a single canvas.

Why the collective as a subject

Painting a group raises different questions from painting a single figure: how to spread attention across several presences, how to give an overall coherence without erasing what sets each one apart. The title "Seul ensemble" sums up that tension between solitude and belonging to a group, one possible way into these paintings through their titles, with no written description standing in for the eye set on the actual work at the gallery.

Ibou Diagne, a painter at the gallery

Ibou Diagne has been shown at Ge'eza's gallery since the "Lien commun" exhibition in October 2025. His artist page brings together several dozen titles, oil and acrylic, large and small formats. From there you can find other canvases along the same thread of the collective, or the market scenes that make up another large part of his work.

Asking for a price and coming to see the paintings

The price of each of these four works is given on request from its page, or directly on WhatsApp at +221 78 660 07 07, or by email to geezacultures@gmail.com, naming the exact title. The team replies with the price, the technical details and the certificate of authenticity that travels with every work sold. The gallery can be visited without an appointment, Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 10pm, during the same hours as the restaurant, at 656 avenue Birago Diop, Point E.