Khalil El Ghrib

About Khalil El Ghrib

Born in 1948 in the old medina of Asilah, where he has always lived and worked, Khalil El Ghrib is one of the most singular figures in Moroccan art. A retired Arabic teacher, he has built his practice far from the art market: his works are neither signed nor dated, and he does not sell them.

He works with humble, everyday materials gathered in the streets and on the beaches of his city — clay, bread, paper, newspaper — and lets time, decay and transformation become part of the work. His first exhibitions date back to 1965 in Tangier and Rabat. His work has since been shown at the Marrakech Biennale, the Sharjah Biennial and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the CDG Foundation presented a major survey of some 200 of his works.