Cheik Ledy was trained in art by his elder brother Chéri Samba. Unlike the young popular artists of his generation, who were self-made and for many years lived a precarious existence, Cheik Ledy benefited greatly from the beginning of his career from his brother’s experience and his access to fine art materials. Like Samba, Ledy builds his compositions with care, interspersing bilingual text (French and Lingala) and image with sophisticated ease.

Ledy’s narratives are imbued with spontaneity, matched by the frankness with which he tackles his frequently controversial themes. He depicted everyday incidents, street-topics (‘sidewalk radio” as the grapevine is called), urban myths, harsh realities. Committed to the art of communication, Ledy expressed the political history and social life of his community; he also documented with rare wit his own status as a painter. But his work is not merely an illustrated chronicle or a diary of his emotional life. He casts a critical eye on his surroundings, with a caustic humor that makes his characters almost seem like caricatures. He treated without complacency not only the biting questions of his day, but also those of world history, challenging his viewers to do the same.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1997
Cheik Ledy
M.A.M.C.O -Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art
Geneva, Switzerland.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005
Arts of Africa
Grimaldi Forum
Monaco - France

2005
African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Museum of Fine Art Houston
Houston - USA

2003 – 2004
Sexuality & Death. Aids in Contemporary African Art
Rautenstraucht Joest Museum
Köln - Germany

2001
Un art populaire
Cartier Contemporary Art Fondation.
Paris, France.

1997
Lumière Noire
Tanlay Art Center, France.

1993
La Grande Vérité, les Astres Africains
Fine Arts Museum
Nantes, France.

1992
Out of Africa
Saatchi Gallery
London, Great-Britain.

1991-1992
Africa Hoy
Africa Now
- Modern Art Center
Las Palmas Gran Canary, Spain.
- Groningen Museum.
Grñningen, Netherland
- Contemporary Art Cultural Center
Mexico City, Mexico.

1991
Ny afrikansk Billedkunst
Rundetarn
Copenhagen, Danemark.

1990
WAAAAW, A far African Art
Courtrai, Belgium.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2005
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2001
" Un art populaire " Cheik Ledy par André Magnin.
Cartier Contemporary Art Fondation, ACTE SUD. Text in French.

1996
Contemporary Art of Africa
Cheik Ledy by Jacques Soulillou, p.121-123
Text in english. Ed. André Magnin & Jacques Soulillou.
Publisher Harry N. Abraams.

1993
KUNSTFORUM AFRICA IWALEWA International (122)
Afrikanische Kunst heute book
Text by A.Magnin p.165 -Cheik Ledy-Cheri Samba p.306 - p.308.

1993
La Grande Vérité, Les Astres Africains, Cheik Ledy by André Magnin
Edited by Nantes Fine Art Museum. Text in French.

1993
AFRIKA
Kunstforum N°122, Ruppichteroth, Suisse