This series explores the passages between the visible and the invisible, between memory and the sacred. The blue figures, outlined in gold with closed eyes, embody universal archetypes caught in a spiritual trance. Inspired by the Dogon cosmogony—where Sirius and the constellations guide the understanding of worlds—the work weaves a link between the stars and humanity, between origin and memory. In resonance with Mexican rituals, these paintings stage pain, prayer, and healing as a shared language across peoples and cultures, a pictorial liturgy where heaven and earth meet.

At the core of the artist’s practice lies memory, stories, and history. For him, it is essential that history be told, transmitted, and reinterpreted through art. Drawing inspiration from his origins, the Dogon people of Mali—renowned for their cosmogony, painters, and sculptors—he summons ancestral spirituality and founding narratives to retrace the path of his ancestors while also bearing witness to his own time.

His paintings explore multi-century realities: stories of pain, prayer, and healing, as well as cosmic narratives tied to the stars, Sirius, and the constellations that structure Dogon thought. Through this, he builds a bridge between the ancient and the contemporary, between the invisible and the visible, showing that these stories transcend time and remain universal.

In short, his work paints collective memory: both that of his ancestors and of our present, illuminating what connects peoples, eras, and cultures.

Bio:

Born in 1988 in Abidjan, In Cheickh Sallah Diebkile is an Ivorian-French artist who decided to focus on painting a multi-secular and multicultural reality, through a combination of ancestral influences and modern techniques.

As a fan of comics, like all youngsters of his age, drawing was for him, from a very early age, a means of expression to unleash his creative genius. He h a s never abandoned this passion which h a s become a vocation nourished by the environment in which he grew up.

Fascinated by curved, clean lines, In Cheickh Sallah Diebkile’s art is articulated around his perception of a plural and multidimensional humanity by finger-painting ghostly silhouettes.

IBN CHEICKH, ARTIST PAINTER

Inspired by the world around him, the artist depicts his artistic sensibility, personal introspection and states of mind on his canvases.

He creates characters that combine the mystery and beauty of life through a unique pictorial technique mastered exclusively by him. In a word, In Cheickh Sallah Diebkile’s art reflects his emotions, origins and commitment