Kine Aw’s themes are inspired by the world of women in the Sahel: round forms, beauty, tradition versus modernity. Most of her paintings and sketches have a distinct cubist style, characterised by organic geometric forms.
She utilizes powerful outlines in various colours to create artworks that explore the universe of women. Her art tackles modernity and tradition from the point of view of an African woman. Her tradition is one of strength and purpose and she reflects the pride she feels in her history and the willingness and openness to explore today’s complexities using that history as a guide. She explores the evolution and interaction of tradition and modernity from her perspective, both as a woman and as an African.
Her paintings also attempt to map African norms, stories and other social artefacts that define the African landscape. Kine Aw sees herself as a counsellor and an ambassador of her culture and feels a responsibility to raise awareness through her modernist paintings. As she says “My paintings show that Africa is beautiful.”
Without restricting herself in any manner, she operates solely from her imagination and intuition drawing on her rich grasp of Senegalese lore and culture to create images that explore the tensions between the past and the present.
She was born Fatou Marie Francoise in 1977 in Dakar, Senegal and graduated from the National School of Arts in Senegal in 2006. In 2008, Kine Aw won the first edition of The Cuomo Foundation painting award for her outstanding work. She has to her credit several workshops, group and solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous international exhibitions. She lives and works in Dakar.