Driss Ouadahi (DZ/DE)Biography
Algerian & German. Born in Casablanca,
Morocco, in 1959. 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 Ouadahi, Von 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.) 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, GermanyKlinkhammer-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 |