Driss Ouadahi

Driss Ouadahi is a painter. He started with abstract colour field paintings consisting of monochrome surfaces that push into each other and overlap, yet he progressively turned to more realistic compositions. Still, it is a turn to the symbols of architecture and the urban that links all his paintings together. He paints subjects that could a priori be considered “a-picturesque”. In his work we find shells of buildings on the periphery of Algiers and Paris - typical dwellings that once brought forth pride as symbols of modernity and progress. They are now looked upon with disdain and shame and are considered utter architectural and social failures.

Ouadahi does not judge. His concern is for the architecture reality. He develops a beauty out of it, which in turn presents itself for discussion.

Driss Ouadahi was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1959 to an Algerian couple. He left Morocco at the age of four, lived in Kabilyia until his thirteenth’s birthday, and subsequently went to Algiers and studied fine arts. After turning twenty-seven, Ouadahi left Algeria to continue his art studies in Paris. He eventually attended the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he has now lived and worked for more than twenty years.

Driss Ouadahi has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Algeria, Morocco, France, and Germany as well as in the US in San Francisco and in New York.