Born - 1981. Tangier, Morocco. 

Based in - Paris, France. 

 

 

For the past 20 years he was painting, taking photos and filming the contradictions of his country and of modern world.

He started painting before he could write. This is something that came to Omar naturally and allowed him to explore his society’s images and destinies. In his art, Omar is trying to reinvent and rewrite the history of the human beings through emotions as he comes from a culture, where figurative art is forbidden. Eroticism is limited, although the sensual is very important there. He is asking questions about bodies and sexuality in everyday life through the depiction of nudity in paintings. Over the last three years, Omar have looked at the world from a political and humanistic point of view and this was the reason for less and less figurative work. Indeed, his work on emptiness has led Omar to consider much more abstract elements.

At the end of this year, the exhibition TAHJAWI by Point Ephémère allowed him to go further by offering an intimate look at Tangier. It is about reporting the reality through mixed techniques like video, drawing, photography and illustration. Omar Mahfoudi wanted to radiate with magnetic charm and poetry about the male friendship in Moroccan society. This exhibition was intended to show the melancholy, sensuality and violence, as well as the humor and absurdity.

For his last series, Omar Mahfoudi decided to choose square formats of 1m2 like Instagram image squares. Exactly this feature distinguishes his art from the traditional and it brings Omar closer to media images; images that we see on TV, Internet and social media every single day (see the series Pixel Collage by Thomas Hischhorn). This plastic effect allows a distancing and critical attitude to the discussing topic. Therefore, it is a variation of the same theme, phase 3 of his series on the contemporary world was inspired by our daily life and it questions the world, our relationship to it and others.

 

 

Text and photo: Courtesy of Afikaris Gallery 

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