Driss Ouadahi (Casablanca, 1959) to Algerian parents.
He left Morocco at the age of four, lived in Kabilyia until his thirteenth birthday, and subsequently went to Algiers and studied fine arts. After turning 27, 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 20 years.
Ouadahi paints works of paradoxical beauty using this stark urbanism as his springboard. Currently Ouadahi works in three milieu - landscapes, fences and underpasses. Persistent in each are his core concerns of geometric abstraction, transparency and the implication of the veil.
His large formal landscapes are montages of spaces and places he knows, with human-scale details often omitted. His labyrinthine layering of planes creates space and perspective that is both familiar and confusing. The accuracy Ouadahi's execution belies the fragility of the structures he paints.
Ouadahi has exhibited in solo exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Düsseldorf, Germany, and Istres, France. He has also taken part in a number of group exhibitions, most recently in Le Retour, 3ème Festival International d'Art Contemporain d'Alger; Magreb: Dos Orillas, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Future of a Promise at Venice Bienale 54, Cairo Biennial 12, and CU Art Museum, University of Colarado in Boulder.
