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Abdoulaye Sow - Artist

@sowblaya

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Exploring Memory, Healing & Ecology through @cassia_occidentalis (Mbant Maré) 🍃🍂

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Honored to have been selected as a 2026 Seed Awardee by @princeclausfund.
This recognition is a meaningful encouragement to continue developing my practice around memory, ecology, ancestral knowledge, healing, and transmission.

Grateful to the Prince Claus Fund for its recognition and support.

PRINCE CLAUS FUND - SEED AWARD 2026 - ABDOULAYE SOW

#SeedAwards2026 #PrinceClausFund #PrinceClausAwards #SeedAwards #PrinceClausAward

A recognition of a practice rooted in memory, ecology, and ancestral knowledge.

What was once transmitted as knowledge of healing now becomes a language of contemporary art.

#MbantMaré #MoreThanAPlant #LivingArchives #ContemporaryArt #Transmission by @sowblaya

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8 days ago

As part of the OFF Dakar Biennale 2026, I will open my studio and present the first public activation of an ongoing research project centered on "Mbant Maré" @cassia_occidentalis as a living archive of healing knowledge, memory and transmission.
Through painting, vegetal matter and natural pigments, the project explores how ancestral knowledge can persist, transform and enter contemporary artistic language.

OPEN STUDIO : 22 November 2026, From 5:00 PM📍Dakar, Senegal.
To receive the exact address and geolocation, please Send me a DM.

MBANT MARÉ, A PROTOCOL OF CARE
Research Project & Installation

#OpenStudio @biennale_de_dakar_officiel @cassia_occidentalis @sowblaya #BiennaledeDakar #AbdoulayeSow #LivingArchives #MbantMare by @sowblaya

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15 days ago

What Survived in Our Hands
Mbant Maré (seeds, leaves), Natural pigments on canvas 70 × 90 cm, 2026

A living archive of memory, care and what survives through transmission.

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #Mbantmare #Abdoulayesow #Ancestralknowledge #ContemporaryArt by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

Seeds of Survivance
Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas 70 × 90 cm, 2026

This work explores the transmission of care through acts of giving, receiving, and sowing.

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #Ancestralknowledge #Mbantmare #ContemporaryArt #Abdoulayesow by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

The Memory of What Healed Us
Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas, 150 × 200 cm, 2026

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #fromthefreshnessofthelivingtothedepthoftheearth #Mbantmare #Ancestralknowledge #AbdoulayeSow by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

What Resists Erasure
Diptych, Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas, 90 × 70 cm × 2, 2026

Through gestures of harvesting, fragmented bodies, and partially visible presences, this work questions what memory preserves despite time and erasure. The drips, textures, and organic traces form a living archive where care, the body, and the plant continue to survive.

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #Mbantmare #Ancestralknowledge #Artcontemporain #Abdoulayesow by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

What Endures the Rupture
Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas, 200 × 200 cm, 2026

Where the archive is fragmented, memory still circulates. Where rupture divides, the medicinal plant reconnects.

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #AncestralKnowledge #Mbantmare #AfricanContemporaryArts #Abdoulayesow by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

What Remains
Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas 90 × 70 cm, 2026

Living Archives, 2026 #livingarchives #Mbantmare #Artcontemporain #AbdoulayeSow #AncestralKnowledge by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

Infused Earth
Mbant Maré (Cassia Occidentalis), Natural pigments on canvas 70 × 90 cm, 2026

Living Archives, 2026 #LivingArchives #Mbantmare #Artcontemporain #Ancestralknowledge #Abdoulayesow by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

Does your art practice connect you to something bigger than yourself? If so, how?

“Absolutely.

My practice reminds me that I am not creating alone. I am in dialogue with living histories carried by medicinal plants, landscapes, and ancestral knowledge.

Growing up in Senegal, I experienced malaria many times, and my mother🕊 cared for me with Mbant Maré (Cassia occidentalis), a medicinal plant that later became the foundation of my artistic research.

Through natural pigments, plant extracts, and materials that continue to transform over time, I see each work as a living archive rather than a fixed object.

My paintings are spaces where memory, ecology, and healing meet, connecting personal experience with collective histories.

Creating art allows me to listen to what nature remembers and to imagine new relationships between humans, plants, and the environments we share.” —
Abdoulaye Sow, Dakar - Senegal @sowblaya

@artistsoncouches

Selected works 2026 — “Living Archives” This series is continuously evolving.

#AbdoulayeSow #artistsoncouches #onthecouch #artistarchive taken in On the Couch by @sowblaya

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2 months ago

Restitution : "Mbant Maré, Racines de Vie" Pendant un mois de résidence, j’ai exploré les liens entre l’art et l’environnement pour offrir un nouveau regard sur la manière dont les éléments naturels, et notamment la plante médicinale @cassia_occidentalis peut jouer un rôle fondamental dans notre relation à la guérison, à la résilience et à notre environnement.

Cette initiative a également un impact social, en engageant la communauté à redécouvrir et valoriser leurs savoirs ancestraux en matière de médecine traditionnelle et en encourageant les jeunes générations à s’impliquer dans la protection de leur patrimoine.

@Dekandoores 📍Saint-Louis

#Restitution #Mbantmare #artistinresidence #sowblaya #Abdoulayesow by @sowblaya

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a year ago

📍@thread_senegal représente une opportunité d’approfondir mon travail autour de la relation entre art, nature et santé publique.

Cette résidence a élargi mon regard, m’a permis de donner une voix artistique à une question vitale : comment préserver et valoriser ce qui nous guérit ?

#Artistresidency #Threadresidency #Threadsenegal #Reforestation #InteretCommun #naturalremedy #Albersresidency #Josefandannialbersfoundation #Albersfoundation #Sowblaya #Abdoulayesow #Endmalaria #Mbantmare taken in The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation by @sowblaya

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a year ago