Anna Binta Diallo: Heliophile

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Anna Binta Diallo, “Glass Remnants,” 2025, digital print decals on Orajet film, dimensions variable (photo by Karen Asher)

“A celebration of sunlight.”  Those words have been used to describe the work of Canadian architect and artist, Étienne Gaboury.

His iconic buildings across Canada emphasize natural light while connecting to the natural landscape. 

The Franco-Manitoban architect passed away in 2022 at Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital, home of Galerie Buhler Gallery. 

His granddaughter, Anna Binta Diallo, is an artist and assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. She creates sculptural collages that explore memory, identity and place. 

After Gaboury’s passing, hannah_g, the curator of GBG, invited Diallo to create work that considers her relationship with her grandfather. 

The result of that conversation is Heliophile, “lover of light,” on view at GBG until Aug. 22, 2025. 

While primarily known for his architecture, Gaboury also made fused and stained glass. One of his pieces permanently sits at the entrance of the gallery, a window commemorating the arrival of Grey Nuns into Manitoba. The window also features buildings from St. Boniface, including the cathedral which he redesigned after a major fire in 1968.  

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Anna Binta Diallo, “Aura 4: Transitions (Illumination),” 2025, fused glass and concrete, 4' x 4' (photo by Karen Asher)

Through this exhibition, Diallo reflects on her grandfather’s work. Stepping away from her collage work, Diallo used glass to incorporate light as a medium into her practice. Working with Prairie Glass Studio, she created both fused and stained glass, building up pieces of coloured glass to make her figures.  

Diallo’s bright, whimsical pieces rest on architectural concrete bases throughout the gallery. Aura 4: Transitions (Illumination) is a circular piece that hovers off the floor. Two figures are lying down, possibly falling asleep or about to wake up. Whether it is morning or night is unknown, but the pair are at ease in their sleepy daze. 

While putting together the exhibition with Diallo, hannah_g said she contemplated the meaning of light, both literal and metaphorical. “We might think of our lifetimes as collections of light, so many rotations around the sun,” she said. 

Sunlight is a uniting presence that connects all the work. Through the sun, the exhibition tracks a day’s journey – or a life’s journey. Sunlight is a metaphor about grief. There is a “sense of losing a source of light when someone we love dies,” hannah_g said.

Aura 1: Awakenings (First Light), is a direct homage to Diallo’s grandfather. The central figure presses her hand against her forehead, shielding her eyes from the bright morning sun, as a rooster crows at her feet. 

Gaboury grew up on a farm with roosters near Bruxelles, Man., and later collected decorative roosters for his home. 

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Anna Binta Diallo, “Aurora 2: Awakenings (Memory Light),” 2025, fused glass and concrete, 24" x 36" (photo by Karen Asher)

In other pieces, figures are layered above each other, floating between time and space. Aura 2: Awakenings (Memory Light) features a girl in a yellow coat and blue boots overlapping the floating figures. She looks up, not interacting with the figures behind her. Whether she can see the figures or feel their presence is up to the viewer to decide. 

Heliophile leaves space to commemorate a life well lived. The figures aren’t given identifiable features, allowing viewers to imagine themselves or their own loved ones in the work. Through the playful use of colour, Diallo reflects on her grief and carries on Gaboury’s celebration of light. ■

Anna Binta Diallo, Heliophile, is on view at Galerie Buhler Gallery until Aug. 22, 2025. 

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