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Driss Ouadahi
Breach in the Silence, 16 July - 20 August 2016
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Driss Ouadahi: Breach in the Silence

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Overview
Driss Ouadahi, Breach in the Silence

Algerian painter Driss Ouadahi studied architecture before immigrating to Germany, where he continues to live and work.  Utilizing a vocabulary of architectural motifs, Ouadahi makes large-scale paintings that borrow from the history of modernist grid painting and traditional Islamic aesthetics, while tackling the difficult and timely topic of human migration.

 

Ouadahi asks us to consider the political and psychological aspects of boundaries and the relationship they have to ethnicity and social class, through representations of three types of architectural imagery:  cityscapes of glittering modernist high-rises, claustrophobic depictions of subway tunnels and photo-realistically rendered pictures of chain link fences.

 

Perhaps in response to his volunteer work—helping refugees from conflicts in the Middle East resettle in Germany—imagery of the cyclone fence dominates Ouadahi’s most recent paintings.  Fencing is a very real impediment to the movement of the millions of people currently fleeing war and violence or seeking a better life.   It’s used to shut them out, pen them in and divide “them” from “us.”  The fence is a dehumanizing symbol of “otherness”—a metaphor for alienation—as ugly a signifier as it is an object.

 

Ouadahi’s depictions of the fence are meticulous.  Delicately-rendered, woven-steel wire is drawn against the sky, simultaneously seductive and ominous.   The fences sometimes stretch taught across the picture plane as an unbroken barrier, but more often are slashed open like a gaping wound or have the regularity of their grids bent out-of-shape, evidence that someone has torn through or scrambled up and over.  These are images of struggle and irrepressibility…   a message to those who call for the building of walls and the closing of borders.

 

Driss Ouadahi was born in Morocco in 1959 to Algerian political exiles.   He studied architecture in Algiers, and painting at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he continues to live.  He participated in the Cairo Biennial in 2010 and was included in The Future of a Promise: Contemporary Art from the Arab Worldduring the 2011 Venice Biennale.  He was awarded the grand prize at the Dakar Biennale in 2014.  His work has been exhibited internationally, including in Dubai, New York, North Africa and throughout Europe.  This is his fifth solo exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery.

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Works
  • Driss Ouadahi Flying fence, 2016 oil on canvas 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in 180 x 220 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Flying fence, 2016
    oil on canvas
    70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in
    180 x 220 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Unterführung, 2016 oil on canvas 43 1/4 x 51 1/8 in 109.9 x 129.9 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Unterführung, 2016
    oil on canvas
    43 1/4 x 51 1/8 in
    109.9 x 129.9 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Oppressed Blessing, 2016 video 2 minutes 27 seconds
    Driss Ouadahi
    Oppressed Blessing, 2016
    video
    2 minutes 27 seconds
  • Driss Ouadahi, The return, 2015
    Driss Ouadahi, The return, 2015
  • Driss Ouadahi, Breach 1, 2016
    Driss Ouadahi, Breach 1, 2016
  • Driss Ouadahi, Enlisée, 2015
    Driss Ouadahi, Enlisée, 2015
  • Driss Ouadahi Oppressed Blessing (1), 2016 chalk pastel and fixative on paper 27 1/2 x 36 5/8 in 69.8 x 93 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Oppressed Blessing (1), 2016
    chalk pastel and fixative on paper
    27 1/2 x 36 5/8 in
    69.8 x 93 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Random tiles, 2016 oil on canvas 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in 180 x 220 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Random tiles, 2016
    oil on canvas
    70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in
    180 x 220 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Departure, 2015 oil on canvas 63 x 55 1/8 in 160 x 140 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Departure, 2015
    oil on canvas
    63 x 55 1/8 in
    160 x 140 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Néon, 2016 oil on canvas 78 3/4 x 118 1/8 in 200 x 300 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Néon, 2016
    oil on canvas
    78 3/4 x 118 1/8 in
    200 x 300 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Etoile filante, 2016 oil on canvas 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in 200 x 180 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Etoile filante, 2016
    oil on canvas
    78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in
    200 x 180 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Aurora, 2016 oil on canvas 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in 200 x 180 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Aurora, 2016
    oil on canvas
    78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in
    200 x 180 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Street light, 2016 oil on canvas 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in 200 x 180 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Street light, 2016
    oil on canvas
    78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in
    200 x 180 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Cerulean tiles, 2016 oil on canvas 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in 180 x 220 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Cerulean tiles, 2016
    oil on canvas
    70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in
    180 x 220 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi Apparition, 2016 oil on canvas 43 1/4 x 51 1/8 in 109.9 x 129.9 cm
    Driss Ouadahi
    Apparition, 2016
    oil on canvas
    43 1/4 x 51 1/8 in
    109.9 x 129.9 cm
  • Driss Ouadahi, Gentle breeze, 2016
    Driss Ouadahi, Gentle breeze, 2016
Installation Views
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Press
  • Driss Ouadahi, "Breach in the Silence," 2016, installation view

    Driss Ouadahi, ‘Breach in the Silence’ at Hosfelt Gallery

    Admin, SF Art Enthusiast, August 4, 2016
  • Driss Ouadahi, "Breach in the Silence," 2016, installation view

    Driss Ouadahi takes on fences in latest exhibit

    Jessica Zack, San Francisco Chronicle, July 13, 2016

Related artist

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    Driss Ouadahi

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