Painter
Hassan Hajjaj
Veiled bikers in counterfeit-brand djellabas, frames lined with tins of tomato purée: Hassan Hajjaj turns the street of Marrakech into a joyful, sharp pop theatre that answers the orientalist gaze with humour.
The artist
Career
Born in Larache in 1961, Hassan Hajjaj moved to London with his family as a child. Shaped as much by the city’s clubs and its hip-hop and reggae scenes as by his North African roots, he is self-taught. He began photographing friends, musicians and passers-by in Marrakech in the late 1980s, and also works in fashion, film, installation and furniture made from recycled crates and cans. He lives and works between London and Marrakech.
A pop of the street
His portraits borrow the codes of fashion photography and the frontal pose of studio portraiture, with an acknowledged debt to Malick Sidibé. Sitters pose in garments he designs, against patterned backgrounds, framed by everyday products: a commentary on branding, tradition and globalisation. His series “Kesh Angels” (2010) and “My Rock Stars” made him one of the best-known Moroccan artists internationally.
Landmarks
- 2009 — Shortlisted, Jameel Prize, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- 2011 — Winner, Sovereign Middle East and African Art Prize
- 2015 — “Karima: A Day in the Life of a Henna Girl”, screened at LACMA, Los Angeles, and Art Basel
- 2016 — “My Rock Stars”, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Officer of the Order of National Merit (Morocco)
- 2017 — “La Caravane”, Somerset House, London
- Solo shows at The Third Line (Dubai) and Rose Issa Projects (London); group shows at the Marrakech Biennale, Edge of Arabia and Photoquai, Paris
Collections
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- British Museum, London
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- Brooklyn Museum, New York
- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Institut des cultures d’islam, Paris
- Farjam Collection, Dubai; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis
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In the same spirit
Discover works by Cheaib El Barki, Mohamed Benhamza and Hassan Hachchane, or browse all Moroccan works for sale.
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