Unfashion diaries
How Art Dealer & Curator Maty Sall creates Beauty in a World of Chaos
Photography by Mangue Banzima
In today’s Unfashion diaries, we sit down with Maty Sall, a French-Senegalese, Paris-born, New York City based art dealer and curator to play dress up and chat about life.
Maty Sall
Informed by her international art market acumen, and with her astute sensitivity for beauty, Sall aims to affirm the global impact and significance of contemporary African art. Through her thought-provoking curatorial practice, she challenges the shallow and habitually negative discourse surrounding the Continent.
By showcasing the multiplicity and depth of contemporary work from both established and emerging African artists, she shines a light on limitless cultural diversity and complexity. Her work demonstrates that the global art conversation is not complete without a chorus of voices from Africa.
Sall is currently the director of the Lower East Side’s Fridman Gallery, where she nurtures the established roster of artists, brings in exciting talent, new perspective, and a fresh conceptual approach to the program. She has been instrumental in reshaping the gallery’s aesthetic identity. Her latest show, ‘A Billion Brilliant Points of Unity,’ an international group exhibition centered on polyculturalism is currently on view at Fridman Gallery.
What is the most important thing you've learned about yourself in the past year?
"It's not so much something that I've learned, but something that I'm constantly reminded of: to strive for beauty!
I'm interested in spreading it, creating it, receiving it, and being around it.
Beauty is so much deeper than mere aestheticism; it's also the intention you have and the energy you create.
I truly believe that you become what you manifest and surround yourself with."
My favorite Prayer:
“With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.”
-Navajo Prayer
What I pray for everyday for myself, and the world.
If you could live in any era of history, which one would you choose and why?
"I wouldn’t choose any other era than right now.
Even though the world seems to have entered a very tumultuous time, there are also incredible things happening in terms of imagining and creating the future; like space travel, AI, our relationship with the natural world (we are discovering, for example, that thousand-year-old trees communicate with each other and that elephants call one another by their own names), etc.
We are clearly reaching new ground in terms of understanding our universe, life, and the interconnectedness of all beings. Artists and creatives have always been crucial in driving existential changes forward, and all of that is very exciting and interesting to me."
If you could ask one person, living or dead, any question, who would you ask and what would you ask them?
"This is a difficult question. I can’t pinpoint a single person or question, but I’m particularly drawn to voices that go against the current, especially those of women who defy societal expectations. Women who strongly trust their instincts, ideas, thoughts, and creations, often in opposition to what is popular at the time.
Joan of Arc and Nina Simone, for example, are women who refused to conform to the roles that society and the mainstream assigned to them. They didn’t care about popularity; they believed deeply in themselves and, through their faith and stubbornness, propelled society forward. These women often exist in the margins, uninterested in spaces that don't feel right or genuine.
I find immense strength and power in their stories and actions. In my curatorial practice, I am deeply interested in brilliant artists like Maya Ines Touam, Yelaine Rodriguez, and Yacine Fall, who explore those themes of womanhood and exceptionalism, who revive the stories of these pioneering women or, who through their own practices, challenge the status quo."
What do you think is the meaning of life?
"I’m not sure, but I’m very grateful for life.
It’s a gift and it's magical.
I make sure to remind myself of it every day
and give thanks for it."
Maty Sall is photographed in front of works of art byHilary Balu, Sahana Ramakrishnan and Malaika Temba.A Billion, Brilliant Points of Unity, a group exhibition curated by Maty Sall is on view now through August 10, 2024 at Fridman Gallery