Driss Ouadahi (DZ/DE)


Biography

Algerian & German. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1959.
Lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Driss Ouadahi is a painter who takes as his subject matter the overlooked and marginal spaces of the city, such as social housing developments and wire fencing surrounding desolate empty spaces. The images he shows us - whether buildings from the outskirts of any large city, empty lands encircled by metal fences, or mere zones of passage - are tendentially non-places, or expectant places, that have a diffuse nature, where no one recognises themselves and few linger. Ouadahi sets up a tension within the paintings by contrasting this stark subject matter, devoid of human presence, with subtle gradations of harmonious colour, and plays games with pictorial depth, which can be fascinating and confusing in equal measure. By densely layering different architectural fragments, his works suggest a connection between landscape painting and modernist abstraction. There is always an awareness in these works of the paradoxical nature of painting, which exists both as a flat surface and a window opening onto an imagined depth.

Education

1988 – 1994

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
, Germany

1984 – 1987

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts,
Algiers, Algeria

Artist Residency


2011

ETANEO, Museum im Busch, Forum für Neue Kunst, Kalkfeld, Namibia


2003

Centre d'Art Contemporain Istres, Marseille, France


Prizes


2014

Grand Prix Léopold Sédar Senghor, Dakar Biennale 


Individual Exhibitions

 

2018

Systeme der Abgrenzung - Malerei von Driss OuadahiVon der Heyt Kunsthalle, Wuppertal, Germany


2016
Transposition, Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon
Breach in the silence, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

2014
Inside Zenith, LawrieShabibi Gallery, Dubai

2013
Implosion, Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon
Trans-location, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

2012
Breathing Space, LawrieShabibi Gallery, Dubai (cat.)

2011

Horst Schuler Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany

 

2010 

Densité, Hosfelt Gallery, New York (cat.)

 

2009 

Herbert-Weisenburger-Stiftung, Rastatt, Germany (cat.)

 

2008           

dok25a (with Yun Lee), Düsseldorf, Germany 

 

2007 

Unexpected Neighborhoods, Hosfelt Gallery, New York 

Another place, Another me, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

 

2005

Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf, Germany 

Atelier AM ECK, Düsseldorf, Germany

 

2003

Centre d'Art Contemporain d'Istres, Marseille, France

 

2001

Institut Français, Düsseldorf, Germany

Klinkhammer-Metzner Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany

 

2000

JASIM Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany

 

1996

RAUM X, Düsseldorf, Germany

 

1990

ISMA Gallery, Algiers, Algeria


Group Exhibitions (selection)


2018

Class Relations-Phantoms of Perception, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany

Le 1er Salon du Dessin d’Alger, Musée Public National d'Art Moderne & Contemporain, Algiers

L'Un et l'Autre - A Project of Kader Attia and Jean-Jacques Lebel, Palais de Tokyo, Paris


2017

Beautiful Stranger, Museum De Wieger, Deurne, Netherlands

Perpetual Construction: A Dialogue with the House of Jean Prouvé III, CAB

Art Center, Brussels


2016

La Ville au Loin, Les Turbulence, FRAC Centre, Orléans, France

Unseen, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE

20th Anniversary Exhibition, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA


2015

Walls and Margins, Barjeel Art Fondation, Sharjah, UAE

Promenons-nous, l´Abbaye, Annecy-le-vieux, France

191° S, Wallpainting II, Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, Germany


2014

Memory, Place, Desire, The Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, PA, USA

Dak'ART — Contemporary Art Biennale, curated by Elise Atangana, Abdelkader Damani, Smooth Ugochukwu Nzewi, Rufisque, Senegal


2013

La Route Bleue, Villa Empain-Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (cat.)

25 ans de créativité arabe, curated by Ihab El Laban, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris 

100%_100 ans, 100 artistes, curated by Mohamed Rachdi, Espace d'Art-Société Générale, Casablanca, Morocco


2012

Horizons croisés, Asilah Festival, curated by Brahim Alaoui, Asilah, Morocco

Desviar do Olhar, Caroline Pagès Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

Semi-permeable, Hosfelt Gallery, New York


2011              

Le Retour, 3rd International Festival of Contemporary Art (FIAC), MAMA, Algiers, Algeria (cat.)

Opening the Doors, Collecting Middle Eastern Art, presented by Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Gallery One, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Magreb: Dos Orillas, curated by Brahim Alaoui, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

Future of a Promise, curated by Lina Lazaar, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (cat.)

Geometric Days, curated by Jeanette Ingberman, Papo Colo and Herb Tam, Exit Art, New York


2010  

Cairo Biennale, cb12, Egypt (cat.)

Pulse Art Fair New York, rep. by Hosfelt Gallery, New York

Einfluss 8 from Düsseldorf, Hosfelt Gallery, New York and San Francisco

archiTECHtonica, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, CO

In full Color, Hosfelt Gallery, New York

 

2009 

Looking Inside Out, curated by Maaretta Jaukkuri and Cristina Ricupero, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway (cat.)

Crossings, Bab Rouah / Bab El Kebir, Rabat, Morocco (cat.)

Périfériks, Centre d'Art de Neuchâtel, Switzerland (cat.)

 

2008            

Watching the detectives, Meierhof Projekt, Düsseldorf, Germany (cat.)

Iconoclastes "Les territoires de l´esprit", curated by Kader Attia, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris

Art entre quatre murs, Musée des Abattoirs, Toulouse, France 

Aqua Winwood Art Fair Miami, rep. by Hosfelt Gallery, Miami, FL


2007 

Pattern vs. Decoration, Hosfelt Gallery, New York and San Francisco

WP8 Activ, Tease Art Fair, Cologne, Germany

Alger Capitale de la Culture Arabe, Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Algiers, Algeria (cat.)


2006 

Sonntag, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco


2003  

Centre d’Art Château de Servières, Marseille, France (cat.)

 

1997  

Bergische Kunstausstellung, Museum Baden, Solingen, Germany (cat.)


1995  

Les effets du voyage, Palais de la Culture, Le Mans, France (cat.)

Al Fann II, Dock 4, Kassel, Germany


Bibliography (selection)

 

Periodicals


Driss Ouadahi takes on fences inlatest exhibit, by Jessica Zack, in sfgate.com, July 13, 1916

CPG Podcasts #1: Driss Ouadahi, Caroline Pagès Gallery podcast series, Lisbon, June 2013

Impressions of the city in blurred lines, by Kelly Carke, in Khaleej Times, December 22, 2014 

Driss Ouadahi, Le plus classique des contemporains, by Syham Weigant, in DIPTYK Magazine n°24, pp. 44-49, June-September 2014

Dakar Biennale brings modern African art to the world stage, by Teo Kermeliotis, for CNN.com, May 29, 2014

Implosion by Driss Ouadahi, by Julian Elias Bronner, in Artforum.com Critics' Picks, August 2013

Driss Ouadahi pinta os bairros da imigração, by Luisa Soares de Oliveira, in Ipsilon-Publico, p. 22, July 12, 2013

La Photographie n'a pas la même portée picturale que la peinture, by Fayçal Métaoui, in ElWatan.com, Le Quotidien Indépendant, December 9, 2011

by Doug McClement, in ARTnews, Feb. 2011

 Driss Ouadahi, by Scott Indrisek, in Modern Painters, p.72, Dec. 2010 / Jan. 2011

Künstler in Düsseldorf-Driss Ouadahi, Sog in den Raum, by Thomas Hirsch, in Biograph, p. 69, Nov. 2010

Now Showing: Driss Ouadahi, by Pilar Viladas, in New York Times T Magazine Blog, Oct. 1, 2010 

Galerierundgang: Entdeckungen in der Scheune, by Helga Meister, in Westdeutsche Zeitung, Jan. 3, 2008.

Galleries: The Paint Strokes Between Realism and Abstraction, by Kenneth Baker, in San Francisco Chronicle, pp. E1, E10, Dec. 1, 2007


Public Collections (selection)


Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE

FRAC Centre Val de Loire, Orléans, France

Herbert-Weisenburger-Stiftung, Rastatt, Germany

Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland

Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany

Nadour Collection, Germany

Stadtsparkasse Baden-Baden, Germany




Caroline Pages address