Anna Binta Diallo: Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light

Mitchell Art Gallery, Edmonton

Anna Binta Diallo, Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light, 2023, digital collage. Courtesy of the Artist and Towards Gallery.

Anna Binta Diallo: Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light

May 27 – August 8, 2025
Mitchell Art Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton

Layering ideas of geologic time with histories of mapping, Anna Binta Diallo’s recent bodies of work engage her digital collage practice in poetic reflections on the ways we navigate land, water, and sky. Those mountains of shadows and valleys of light is a meditation on the multitude of strategies we have used over millennia to map and chart paths across the earth, inspired by a collection of discarded paper maps. Diallo’s works on suspended plexiglass and Japanese paper invite us to consider the relationships between colonial histories and the map fragments. Layering their segments amongst fossils and cloud formations, the artist refuses the map’s totalizing and flattening view. This strategy is a reminder of the humbling timescale of the planet and its shifting tectonic plates when compared to human and personal histories of traversing the land.

Anna Binta Diallo, Sediments and sky, 2023, digital collage. Courtesy of the Artist and Towards Gallery.

About the Artist

Anna Binta Diallo (b. 1983, Dakar, Senegal; lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba) explores how memory and nostalgia coalesce to create unexpected narratives surrounding identity. Her work examines themes of migration, displacement, personal mythologies, diaspora, and the relationship between language, history, and identity. Diallo holds an MFA from the Transart Institute (Berlin) and a BFA from the School of Art, University of Manitoba. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at institutions such as MOCA Taipei, SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), Centre Clark, Contemporary Calgary, and Museum London (London, ON). In 2022, her work was featured in the 13th edition of the African Photography Biennial in Bamako, Mali. Diallo has received numerous grants and honors, notably from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. In 2022, she was longlisted for the prestigious Sobey Prize, and her works are part of various public and private collections. Currently, Diallo serves as an assistant professor at the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, located on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. She is represented in Canada by Towards Gallery.

Anna Binta Diallo, photo by Vincent Lafrance

About Mitchell Art Gallery

The John and Maggie Mitchell Art Gallery is a professional public art gallery dedicated to engaging timely conversations and community through contemporary art. The gallery supports interdisciplinary, experiential learning for the public and for the university community. Located in the heart of downtown Edmonton in MacEwan University’s Allard Hall, John and Maggie Mitchell Art Gallery programming also serves the local community through emphasizing safe, collaborative and relevant opportunities for learning and visual literacy development.

Mitchell Art Gallery
11-121, Allard Hall
MacEwan University
11110 – 104 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 1M9
www.MacEwan.ca/MitchellArtGallery
mitchellartgallery@macewan.ca

Instagram @mitchellartgallery

Summer Hours
Tuesday – Friday: 12 – 5pm
Saturday – Monday: Closed

Accessibility
The Mitchell Art Gallery and Allard Hall are accessible spaces. Detailed accessibility information can be found on our website.

Image Descriptions
1. A circular digital collage featuring a bright circle in orange and yellow hues, with a blue and green circle that resembles the earth within, and numerous wavy blue and purple abstracted shapes reminiscent of clouds, geological formations and ribbons. The very center of the circle is a gold fossil.
2. A digital work featuring abstracted cut out shapes, symbols that reference mapping and scientific diagrams and images of sky, and other textures. These elements are collaged together into an almost circular form with uneven edges, and containing shades of blue, green, yellow, red and purple.
3. A headshot of the artist Anna Binta Diallo sitting on a chair in a studio, with artwork behind her.