Soly Cissé is a graduate of the Dakar School of Fine Arts, from which he graduated top of his class. As a child, Cissé enjoyed drawing on the X-rays that his father, a radiologist, brought home. Today, he is still fascinated by transparencies, light imposing itself on darkness, the essence of colours. When he paints, his brush reveals a scene, brings light to a story, and frees the characters trapped in the black background.

Cissé refuses imitation and abhors illustration. Each work gives birth to a new world, to new creatures that are neither completely human, nor completely animal, nor completely legendary. Cissé paints with a brush, his hand and a knife, but has also made metal sculptures. Cissé’s reputation has crossed borders and his work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain as well as touring exhibitions such as Africa Remix, Centre Pompidou and Hayward gallery (2005), which was an international success. His work is in the following collections, Collection Bassam Chaïtou, Senegal; Centro per l’arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Italy and Fondation Dapper, France.