Povos Gallery is proud to present 26-18, a dual exhibition featuring work by Modou Dieng Yacine and Johannes Sivertsen. This powerful showcase of contemporary genre paintings explores themes of migration, global citizenship, and community through the distinct lenses of two artists whose experiences as migrants deeply inform their practices. 26-18 will be on view from March 22 to April 27.

The exhibition’s title, 26-18, references the two neighborhoods central to the works of the artists: the 26th Ward of Chicago, where Yacine lives and works, and the 18th Arrondissement of Paris, where Sivertsen resides. Through their chosen subjects, both artists celebrate the resilient communities that they engage with daily.

Modou Dieng Yacine, a Senegalese artist now based in Chicago, creates paintings that blend American abstraction with modern French figurative traditions. These striking works feature real people from his local community—immigrants who, like Yacine, have forged new lives in America. These individuals, all of whom are first- or second-generation citizens, are all artists or creatives, as well, offering a simple but profound parallel: the undervaluation that America extends both to migrants and artists. Yacine has been involved with Povos’s evolution since the gallery opened in 2021.

In 2023, Povos exhibited Conflicts of Freedom, a group show curated by Yacine’s company, blackpuffin, which is dedicated to supporting contemporary Black artists from Africa and its diaspora through curation and advising. Conflicts of Freedom explored the emotional vulnerability of artistic creation alongside the pressure of external forces—political, theoretical, and commercial—that shape artistic freedom and practice. Through the lens of migration, Yacine further explores and establishes this premise. In featuring fellow Chicago creatives as subjects in 26-18—many of whom are also longtime collaborators and contributors to the gallery’s oeuvre—Yacine further explores and establishes this premise through an observant and personal lens.

Johannes Sivertsen, a Danish artist, contributes works created in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris—a neighborhood rich with immigrant and artistic history. Drawing on the tradition of Parisian painters who depicted the lives of familiar people from their local communities, Sivertsen’s work creates a visual dialogue between past and present. His subjects—some friends, others met in the local streets or bars—are all part of the immigrant fabric that has long shaped the neighborhood and the city at large. By revisiting classic compositions and placing today’s citizens within the neighborhood’s historical context. Sivertsen’s paintings invite viewers into the lives of the people he paints, showcasing their work and each subject’s interiority simultaneously. Sivertsen’s presentation of works is supported in part by a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.

Together, Yacine and Sivertsen bring forward a conversation about global citizenship that is positive and hopeful, celebrating the essentialism of global migration. Viewed collectively, their work transcends borders, offering a reflection of how art, culture, and community can unite individuals from all walks of life.

26-18 is more than an exhibition; it’s an invitation to reflect on the power of migration, the role of art in bridging communities, and the universal human experience of belonging. Povos is proud to present this timely dialogue through the eyes of two incredible artists.

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Tags: Chicago, Johannes Sivertsen, Modou Dieing Yacine, Modou Dieing Yacine And Johannes Sivertsen: 26 - 18, Povos West Town, West Town