Initially a painter, Rita Alaoui varies her creative methods, ranging from painting to drawing, photography, installation and the creation of artists’ books. With a protocol that can be reminiscent of that of botany or archaeology, Rita Aaloui puts at the center of her work the collection, accumulation and observation of objects that she finds in nature, which she then meticulously organizes in the temple that is her studio, thus giving them a form of sacredness or unsuspected spirituality. Her paintings explore the details of the natural and seemingly mundane objects she collects, sometimes diverting, staging them in pictorial works that recompose the spaces and relationships between these objects. She combines a plastic and aesthetic work of the object, which has earned her numerous exhibitions on a national and international scale.

Works

Solo exhibitions

2023 – The Silent Garden, SINIYA28 Gallery, Marrakech, Morocco.

2022 – Orpin, Orangerie du Parc Prieuré, Conflans-Sainte Honorine, France.

– Paris Internationale art fair, Tangier Print Club, Paris, France.

2020 – Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful, Galerie 127 Montreuil, France.

– Vos Rêves, Artefact, Paris, France.

2019 – Manifesto of a Fossil, Boa Gallery, Paris, France.

– Anamorphia, Kulte Gallery, Rabat, Morocco.

2018 – Venus d’ailleurs, Villa Delaporte Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco.

2016 – Found Objects, Delacroix Gallery, French Institute of Tangier, Morocco.

Group exhibitions

2024 – My Grandmother’s Garden, Centre Tignous d’Art Contemporain, Artist Guest curator: Rita Alaoui, Montreuil, France.

2022 – Dakar Biennial, African Art Book Fair, Dakar, Senegal.

– And what about art? (Alaoui, Santos, Tingaud) Café Parisien, Saulieu, France.

2019 – Rabat Biennial, a moment before the world, curated by Abdelkader Damani.

– Open Studio Madrid 35000 Jovenes, Curated by Mouna Mekouar, Madrid, Spain.

2018 – Kissaria Print Exhibition, curated by Hicham Bouzid, Tangier, Morocco.

– A family resemblance. Because Ghosts Disappear at Dawn, curated by Sonia Recasens, Contemporary Art Sapce H2M, Bourg-en-Bresse, France.

– Chinese International Photography And Art Festival, curated by Nicolas Havette, Zhengzhou, China.

– Spend, Kulte Gallery, Curated by Yasmina Naji, Rabat, Morocco.

2017 – Field Work, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK.

2010 – Woman And Art, Contemporary Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE.

2009 – Something Different, Apw Galery, New York, USA.

– Art and Environment, curated by Lalla Hasna Foundation, Villa des Arts, Casablanca, Morocco.

2008 – Marrocos, Faap, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

– Hohenthal und Bergen Gallery, Berlin, Germany.

– Plural prints, Institut Français, Casablanca / Tangier, Morocco.

Publications

2020 – Demain Sera Beau (Al Manar Editions, Paris) 16 unique editions enhanced and signed by the artist.

– Demain sera beau (Al Manar Editions, Paris) Current edition.

– Free Thoughts of a Wild Plant on the World (Editions Comme un arbre, Paris)

100 copies printed in Risography signed by the artist.

2016 – The Alphabet Connection, Collaboration with artist Anna-Sabina Zurrer (Switzerland).

– Do It In Arabic, Sharjah Art Foundation, Hans Ulrich Obrist & Hoor Al Qasimi.

2013 – Fragments De Vie Quotidien, (Al Manar Editions, Paris) 36 unique editions enhanced and signed by the artist.

Talks

2019 – Collective Museum of Casablanca, Observatory Workshop, Casablanca, Morocco.

2018 – African Art Book Fair, La Colonie, Paris, France.

2015 – Jaou Tunis, Visual Culture In An Age Of Global Conflict, Anthony Downey, Kamel Lazaar Foundation, National Museum Of Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia.

– Les Jeudis de l’IMA, La Création Artistique au Féminin, Maati Kabbal, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France.

2010 – Woman And Art, Contemporary Art Museum, Sharjah

2007 – Azilah Art Festival, Morocco.

Research projects and residencies

2019, Paris, France. Cité des Arts. Winner of a six-month research and production residency at the Cité des Arts, Paris, in partnership with the Institut Français.

2017-2019, Edinburgh, Scotland – Casablanca, Morocco. Minefields. Research collaboration and cross-residencies led by Arts Cabinet (UK), between Rita Alaoui and writer, researcher and architect Edward Hollis (Edinburgh University).

Workshops

• MAC VAL, Les fabriques culturelles, Vitry-sur-Seine, France.
• St. Exupéry College, Andresy, France.
• Académie Charpentier, Paris, France.
• MACAAL (Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden), Marrakech, Morocco.
• EAC (Casablanca School of Architecture), Morocco.
• ESAAD (Higher School of Applied Art and Design), Casablanca, Morocco.

Collections

Weingarten Art Group (USA) / Yale University (USA) / University Of North Carolina (USA) / Berkley University (USA) / Mohamed Vi Museum Rabat (Morocco) / Alliance Foundation (Morocco) / Royal Library Of Netherlands (Netherlands) / Artphilin Foundation (Switzerland) / The Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands) / Institut du Monde Arabe (France) / Inter Continental Montelucia Resort & Spa (USA) / Palais Royal (Morocco) / Societe Generale Foundation (Morocco).

For more than 20 years, flowers have been appearing episodically in Rita Alaoui’s works between opacity and transparency, between alignment and apparent disorder. This attracted the attention of Moulim Larroussi (2003), an art historian in Rabat: Rita Alaoui ” erases everything from the earth to relive the jubilant moment of seeing life reborn from the depths “. The same year, Bernard Teulon-Noailles noted that in these flowers, ” it is the colour that draws a form that merges with the background, in the obvious pleasure of bringing things to life in a way that in no way denies its fluidity “. Rita Alaoui explained this more precisely in 2007 during her exhibition at the Shart Gallery in Casablanca. The flowers would be there because the artist no longer lives in the garden and because she does not have a “green thumb”. Which may imply that she once knew a garden, a vanished Eden, linked to a particularly cherished grandmother whom she wishes to revive at least from time to time during the last two decades and more frankly in the present time. For the technique used, Rita Alaoui evokes the American Kacimi School or Tàpies as well, and of course Henri Matisse. Jean-François Clément, September 2024