Alexandre Diop (France, b. 1995, lives and works in Austria) ⁠recalls once early in his education making a painting on a wooden door and being frustrated with it, until he pasted a scrap of paper to the surface. The certainty of the paper—what was expressed by its reality without the need for any elaboration from him as an artist— made an impression that forever altered Diop’s understanding of his work. ⁠
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“I saw art as a way to exist, because I could not seem to exist without saying what I think,” Diop says. “I use what appears legible to me, like objects, because I am interested in creating something that’s alive. I want people to feel something. To be impressed. To be shocked. Uncomfortable. Proud. My work creates another reality—not just on a pictorial level, but you feel the reality of life.” ⁠