Driss Ouadahi: Unexpected Neighborhoods

New York Gallery

In his first solo New York exhibition, Algerian Driss Ouadahi paints lush, gridded abstractions that reference architecture found on the outskirts of urban Europe. Cities like Paris and Berlin built huge high-rise housing developments on their peripheries to accommodate growing immigrant populations. Without revealing the inhabitants, the paintings nonetheless bring to mind the politics of class, religion and ethnicity embodied within these structures.

Drawing upon a lifelong interest in architecture, Ouadahi creates a hybrid language of structural design and abstract painting that infuses rich color and light into the rigid form of monotonous buildings. Broad, multi-colored brushstrokes define volume and depth in the paintings’ repetitive geometry. The lushness of paint creates a seductive but impenetrable surface, leaving us wondering about the life behind the walls.