Jen Rekk


Visual artist, founding member and President of Doors and Passageways of Return Foundation (Washington DC) ; founding member and General Secretary of Doors and Passageways.

Practicing art for more than twenty years, Ali has already shown his work in America, Africa and Europe.

She is well versed in painting, sculpture, installations and interactive works, as well as video. She has an MA in Arts Education and a BFA in Fine Arts.

She was a recipient of the Pew Fellowship (Philadelphia) and the Fullbright Fellowship (government) which enabled her to develop an expression project and an exhibition entitled Doors and Passageways of Return in an abandoned building in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire).

The exhibition site was the home of a gang of 40 abandoned teenagers that Ali had integrated into his project by introducing them to art and organizing an exhibition of their work at the end of his fellowship period. As a result of this project, she established the Doors and Passageways of Return Fundation in 2000 in Washington DC.

The goal of this foundation was to build an art center in Africa that would provide aid and assistance to unemployed youth, and encourage intercultural exchange across the continent and between the continent and the outside world.

In 2000 Passageways Foundation had an exhibition for Gilbert Medeton, (a young Ivorian living on the streets), at the Ramee Gallery in Washington DC. Ali has a proven track record in art education, organizing art workshops, and mounting exhibitions.


  • 7725 Sicap Mermoz - Dakar, Senegal
  • +221 77 978 99 34
  • Skype: muhsanasy
  • muhsaali@gmail.com
By Muhsana Ali


Set in the fishing town of Joal-Fadiouth, home of one of Senegal’s largest fishing ports, this work represents a small part of a larger project entitled Jën Rekk (“Just Fish” in the Wolof language).

This initiative addresses the disappearance of fish along the coast of West Africa due to illegal over-fishing by European and Chinese vessels.

This work symbolized the return to the extinct species to the region by way of artistic intervention involving participation of the population.

In this case, also involving the women potters of Ngueniene, a collective of local women potters who were commissioned to produce the small ceramic fishes that made up the larger fish designed by the artist.

The outer wall was also painted by the women, composed of patterns traditionally used for their pottery.