Art Prints from North Africa, the Levant, and the Gulf
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Time to read 4 min
L'BLASSA ART SPACE in Marrakech came alive with the works of 16 incredible artists from across the Arab world. From November 17, 2023 to January 21, 2024, we brought together over 60 prints that told stories of home, heritage, and contemporary life in our region.
The artists and their works, by alphabetical order
Abdellah Aboulhamid, Morocco
Abdellah Aboulhamid, born in 1990 in Errachidia, Morocco, is a digital artist whose creations deeply engage with the Arabic language and the expansive heritage of Arab culture.
Abdellah Azizi, Morocco
Abdellah Azizi, a Moroccan visual storyteller, evolved from Ouarzazate's film industry to become a photographer and filmmaker. His work, inspired by cinema, documents Morocco's landscapes and hidden histories. Azizi sees himself as a professional traveler, capturing compelling narratives that bridge past and present.
Adem Yahiaoui, Algeria
Algerian photographer Adem Yahiaoui focuses on preserving North African identity through his art, exploring architecture and urban challenges. His work delves into the daily life, contradictions, and changes in the region.
Ali AlMasi, Jordan
Based in Amman, Ali Almasri is a pioneering Arabic calligrapher and designer who masterfully bridges traditional and contemporary aesthetics. As the founder of Abjad type foundry and co-creator of the social design initiative Wajha, he's known for his distinctive fusion of Arabic calligraphy with Japanese techniques, particularly in his handmade ukiyo-e works. His influence spans across typography, industrial design, and Islamic arts, making him a significant figure in contemporary Arabic design.
Anass Ouaziz, Morocco
Moroccan artist and photographer Anass Ouaziz, hailing from Beni Mellal, has a talent for uncovering the extraordinary in everyday life. Inspired by the Atlas Mountains and his Amazigh heritage, he combines natural beauty with cultural richness in his photography. Anass's work has been featured in notable magazines and earned him recognition in Textile Exchange's 2022 photography competition for his project 'Private Transmissions.'
Hicham Matini, Morocco
Based in Casablanca, Hicham Matini (b. 1987, Tahla) is a visual artist who graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan. His work examines how images shape contemporary discourse, exploring the intersection of tradition and modernity through painting and mixed media. By reappropriating popular symbols and investigating themes like urban violence and generational conflict, Matini challenges viewers to reconsider their relationship with media and cultural transmission.
Ismail Elaaddioui, Morocco
Ismail Elaaddioui (from Ait Melloul) is a young photographer and graphic designer who embraced his artistic journey at age 22 during the pandemic. His minimalist approach captures landscapes, architecture, and human connections, with a distinctive style defined by his masterful use of light and shadow to explore family relationships and environmental elements.
Mariem Abu Taleb, Egypt
Mariem, a Cairo-based graphic designer and AUC graduate, specializes in Arabic lettering and type design. She experiments with Arabic script to create harmonious compositions that bring life to songs, poems, and daily diaries across various mediums, including fabric, while emphasizing cultural heritage preservation through her typographic work.
Med Amine Mouhtadi, Morocco
Moroccan photographer Mohamed Amine Mouhtadi captures the poetry in everyday moments through his distinctive lens. His work explores human connections and finds beauty in ordinary scenes, reflecting a sensitive perspective that invites viewers to discover emotional resonance in daily life.
Mehdi Ait El Mellali, Morocco
Mehdi Ait El Mallali (b. 1997, El Hajeb) is a self-taught photographer now based in Paris whose journey began in Morocco's Atlas landscapes. His work evolved from capturing natural landscapes to exploring sociological themes and personal experiences, particularly his transition from Morocco to France. His photography, influenced by cinema, has been exhibited at prestigious venues including Galerie 127 in Montreuil and the National Museum of Photography in Rabat, with his first Photo Zine "Blur" released in 2022.
Mothanna Hussein, Palestine/Jordan
Mothanna Hussein is a Palestinian-Jordanian artist based in Amman whose work spans 3D objects, jewelry, and calligraphic experiments. Through his project "Allah1.net," he explores varied graphic interpretations of the word "Allah," while his broader artistic practice focuses on light, texture, and materiality. His meticulous work transforms Arabic language into innovative creative expressions, pushing the boundaries between reality and artificial scenes.
Nabil Boudarqa, Morocco
Nabil Boudarqa (b. 1986, Casablanca) is a multidisciplinary artist known for his work in photography and painting. Since beginning his artistic career in 2008, he has earned multiple first-place awards and showcased his work in both solo and collective exhibitions at Morocco's leading galleries.
Nyzar Trabxlsi, Tunisia
Nyzar Trabxlsi (NZX), a Tunisian art director and multidisciplinary artist based in Detroit, works across graphic design, digital illustration, and motion design. As founder of "Fichier Caché," an experimental North African streetwear brand, they create work for prominent North African musicians while exploring Maghrebi-Arab identity through a blend of colorful imagery and dark humor, addressing themes of inequality and creative struggles in the Global South.
Rex Chouk, Saudi Arabia
RexChouk, a Saudi multimedia artist who emerged in 2013, creates work that critiques contemporary Khaleeji society. Through painting, drawing, illumination, and sound, he blends local vernacular with global pop culture symbols. His art explores corporeality and systemic interconnections, aiming to reveal hidden harmonies in our global framework while emphasizing the physical world's divine and electric nature.
Safaa Kotbi, Morocco
A graduate of Tétouan's National Institute of Fine Arts (2021), she began creating art in 2007, influenced by her family's background in applied arts. While her studies at INBA expanded her contemporary artistic vocabulary, her work remains rooted in socio-familial themes, expressed through various mediums including drawing, installation, performance, photography, and kinetic art.
Zakaria Wakrim, Morocco
Zakaria Wakrim (b. 1988), working between Spain and Morocco, evolved from an experimental photographer to a visual storyteller exploring identity and change in North Africa. Recognized as an "Emerging Artist" in Morocco, his work examines how rapid cultural transformation blurs traditional and modern elements, using photography as an organic language to document and understand shifting cultural foundations.
