Dakar's Roundabouts and Landmarks in Tampidaro's Painting

"La mystique du rond-point" (the mystique of the roundabout), "Sous le rond-point d'artifices," "Totem dans la ville" (totem in the city) and "Dakar en travaux" (Dakar under construction) are four paintings by Tampidaro, in mixed acrylic, where the roundabout, the urban totem and the building site become full subjects of painting. All four works are available at Ge'eza's gallery, with the price given on request from each page.

The roundabout, a landmark of Dakar's cityscape

The roundabout holds a particular place in Dakar's urban landscape: a traffic junction, often decorated with a monument, a sculpture or simply planted greenery, it also works as a landmark for finding your way around the city, much like the name of a neighbourhood. "La mystique du rond-point," mixed acrylic at 100 x 150 cm made in 2023, gives this place an almost sacred quality from the start, suggested in the title itself. "Sous le rond-point d'artifices," same technique, 100 x 150 cm, 2025, takes up the motif again two years later, this time with a title that evokes light or spectacle.

The page for "La mystique du rond-point" gives the full technique, size, year and status of this work, with a photograph of the painting.

"Totem dans la ville" and urban sculpture

"Totem dans la ville," mixed acrylic at 150 x 150 cm made in 2025, widens the subject beyond the roundabout alone: a totem, a vertical and symbolic sculpture, placed within an urban setting, becomes the starting point of the painting. This large square format is the most imposing of the four works gathered here. Its page, "Totem dans la ville", states the technique and status of the work.

Two views of the same junction

It is worth placing these two paintings side by side. "La mystique du rond-point," painted in 2023, and "Sous le rond-point d'artifices," painted two years later in 2025, share the same starting motif but are not identical variations: the second title introduces an idea of fire, light or celebration absent from the first. That two-year gap, within the work of a single artist returning to the same kind of place, suggests how an urban subject can stay present in a body of work, revisited rather than exhausted in a single canvas.

"Dakar en travaux," a city in transformation

"Dakar en travaux," mixed acrylic at 100 x 100 cm made in 2023, names a permanent state of many fast-growing cities: the building site, the resurfaced road, the neighbourhood that looks different from one year to the next. This title rounds out the other three by widening the view from one specific roundabout to the whole city, caught in ongoing transformation.

Four paintings, one technique

All four works are made in mixed acrylic, the technique that runs through Tampidaro's current body of work. This approach layers several coats and gestures, acrylic and mixed media, to build a dense surface, different from both pure oil and plain acrylic. Sizes vary from one painting to the next, from the 100 x 100 cm square to the 100 x 150 cm rectangle up to the large 150 x 150 cm square, which leaves a fairly wide choice depending on the wall to be filled.

Hanging a dense urban scene

A subject like a roundabout or a building site, given the visual density it suggests, often calls for a clear wall and enough distance for the whole to read before the details do. For the largest format, "Totem dans la ville" at 150 x 150 cm, standing back two to three metres allows a first overall read, before moving closer to study the surface.

As for care, mixed acrylic is treated like a standard acrylic painting: kept away from direct sunlight, in a room with stable humidity, dusted with a dry, soft cloth. Square formats, such as "Totem dans la ville" at 150 x 150 cm or "Dakar en travaux" at 100 x 100 cm, need a wall wide enough that the composition is not crowded by furniture or a nearby doorframe.

Tampidaro at the gallery

Tampidaro has been shown at Ge'eza's gallery since the "Lien commun" exhibition in October 2025. His artist page brings together his full body of paintings, largely devoted to urban Dakar: markets, roundabouts, streets and figures of a city in motion.

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.