Connecting contemporary Arab woman with the Orientalist imagery of nineteenth century Romanticism, Lalla Essaydi’s photography is created from the unique perspective of the personal experience. Her representations of the female body, combined with the Islamic calligraphy applied by hand with henna, focus the complex issue of Arab female identity. In most of her work, Essaydi returns to her childhood in Morocco, evoking the memories of life in a different world taking into account the fact of time that has been elapsed and her artistic point of view. Inviting the viewer to resist stereotypes, she strives to present her art through multiple lenses of an artist of Moroccan origin, Islam religion with Liberal convictions and traditional principles.
Essaydi was born in Marrakesh in 1956. She left her birth town to attend a high school in Paris where she later studied at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. When she got married, she lived in a Saudi Arabia. After the divorce, Essaydi moved to Boston in 1996, continuing her education at Tufts University and School of the Museum of Fine Arts where she earned her master degree in paintings and photography. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and makes the part of the numerous collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Art Institute of Chicago and the San Diego Museum of Arts.
The characteristic of her photographs is decoration made of Islamic calligraphy-writing applied in henna that adorns the interior space and skin and robes of her subjects. It seems like these women are shrouded into these inscriptions. Dealing with the themes of the greater emancipation of the Arab women, Essaydi is trying to present traditional issues that are often misunderstood in the West. Her first photographic series, the Converging Territories, 2002-2004, was shot in the house where female members of her family were locked up if they broke the rules of Islam. The second series, Nazar: Photographs from the Arab World, 2005, question the Islamic tradition which condemned women to live indoors. As the artist herself says, they are nothing but the decoration, which she used to literary decorate their bodies and clothes.
Lalla Essaydi deals with the restrictions imposed on the women in the Muslim world. The inscriptions over their bodies and surroundings are actually their voice in moments of silence in isolation. Emphasizing her rebellion, she points out the fact that within the Islam calligraphy cannot be practiced by women. In her artistic career Essaydi practiced painting, mixed media and video, but since 2002, she devoted herself to photography, as the most convenient medium for the explorations of women in Islamic society. Moving beyond a critique of Western art history about visual traditions of Islam, she creates multi-layered and complex work that convey her own experience as an Arab woman.
Essaydi’s work is represented by Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston and Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City.
Featured image: Lalla Essaydi – Artist portrait, photo via artsalesmfa.edu
All images copyright the artists
Year | Exhibition title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Lalla Essaydi: Arab Female Identity | Fitchburg State University Museum, Fitchburg | Solo |
2016 | Lalla Essaydi: New Work | San Diego Musuem of Art, San Diego, California | Solo |
2016 | One Belt One Road, Visual Arts Exhibtion 2016 | Sotheby’s Honk Kong Gallery, Honk Kong | Group |
2015 | Lalla Essaydi: Photographs | The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego | Solo |
2015 | Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism | Benjamin-Constant Montreal Museum of Fine Arts | Solo |
2015 | She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World | The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Solo |
2015 | Lalla Essaydi: Photographs 2005-13 | The San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California | Solo |
2015 | Re-Orientations IDEA at Colorado College | Colorado Springs, Colorado | Solo |
2015 | Lalla Essaydi: New Work | Ohio University Museum | Solo |
2015 | She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World | Iris & B. Gerald Canto Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University, Sanford, California | Solo |
2015 | Re-Orientations | Colorado College | Group |
2015 | Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism | Benjamin-Constant in his time Montreal, Canada | Group |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi: Writing the Self | Writing Others, Bahrain National Museum | Solo |
2014 | Shared Realtiy | Tampere Art Museum + Backlight 2014 Photo Festival: Finland | Solo |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi | James Madison University Museum, Harrisonburg | Solo |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi: New Beauty | Karen Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco | Solo |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi: POÉSIE LUMIÈRE | Galerie Tindouf, Marrakech, Morocco | Solo |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi: Beyond Time and Beauty | Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan | Solo |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi | The World Bank Art Program, Washington DC | Group |
2014 | Decisive Moments: Photographs from the Cherye R. and James F. Pierce Collection | Honolulu Museum of Art, | Group |
2014 | Lalla Essaydi | Centre Culturel Le Botanique, Belgium | Group |
2014 | FotoFest | 2014 Biennial, Houston, | Group |
2014 | i.d.e.a. Arizona Museum of Youth: A Way with Words | Arizona Museum of Youth, | Group |
2013 | Lalla Essaydi: Beyond Beauty | Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London | Solo |
2013 | Lalla Essaydi | Miller Yezerski Gallery, Boston | Solo |
2013 | Lalla Essaydi: Writing Femininity | Writing Pleasure, Oakland University Art Gallery Rochester | Solo |
2013 | Lalla Essaydi: BOUNDARIES | Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong, China | Solo |
2013 | Les Femmes du Magreb | Orientalist Museum, Doha, Qatar | Solo |
2012 | Universe | Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates | Solo |
2012 | Lalla Essaydi: Revisions, a Retrospective | Smithsonian African Museum of Art, Washington D.C. | Solo |
2012 | IN FOCUS: Recent Acquisitions in Photography | New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain | Group |
2012 | In Her Eyes: Women Behind and in Front of the Camera | Newwark Museum | Group |
2011 | Harem | Jackson Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA | Solo |
2011 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Karen Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco | Solo |
2011 | Lalla Essaydi: Power of Writing | National Gallery, Tanger, Morocco | Solo |
2011 | Lalla Essaydi: Les Femmes du Maroc | National Gallery, Fes, Morocco | Solo |
2011 | Lalla Essaydi: Power of Writing | Bab Rouah National Gallery, Rabat, Morocco | Solo |
2011 | Harem | Edwynn Houk Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland | Solo |
2011 | Sargazers: Elizabeth Catlett In Conversation With 21 Contemporary Artists | Bronx Museum | Group |
2011 | Résonance : artistes contemporains marocains du monde | Musée privé de Marrakech | Group |
2010 | Harem | Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York | Solo |
2010 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Bates Museum of Art, Lewiston | Solo |
2010 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Colgate University, Hamilton | Solo |
2010 | Lalla Essaydi: Les Femmes du Maroc | Zimmerli Musem at Rutgers, New Brunswick | Solo |
2010 | Lalla Essaydi: Femmes du Maroc | deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln | Solo |
2010 | Art of Today | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Group |
2010 | Mapping Identity | Haverford College, Haverford | Group |
2010 | Out of the Box: Photography Portfolios from the Permanent Collection | deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln | Group |
2010 | Patern ID | Akron Museum of Art, Akron, OH | Group |
2009 | Aftermath | The 25th Alexandria Biennial for Mediterranean Countries Representing Morocco | Solo |
2009 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Schneider Gallery, Chicago | Solo |
2009 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Tindouf Gallery, Morocco | Solo |
2009 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Sultan Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait | Solo |
2009 | Embodiment, an exhibition of installations | Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston | Solo |
2009 | Indelible: The Photographs of Lalla Essaydi | First Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville | Solo |
2009 | Camoufage | La Casa Enciendida, Madrid, Spain | Group |
2009 | Undercover: Performing and Transforming Black Female Identities | Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta | Group |
2009 | Ingres et les Modernes | Musée Ingres, Montauban, France | Group |
2009 | A Complex Weave:Women and Identity in Contemporary Art | The Stedman Gallery, Rutgers | Group |
2009 | Transitions. Painting at the (other) End of Art | The Moramotti collection of contemporary art, Emilia, Italy | Group |
2009 | Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body | San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA | Group |
2009 | Decoding Identity: I Do It for My People | Museum of The African Diaspora | Group |
2009 | Timbuktu to Cape Town | Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford | Group |
2009 | Photographic Figures | Museum of Fine Art, Boston | Group |
2008 | Lalla Essaydi: Crossroads, Waterhouse & Dodd Gallery | London, United Kingdom | Solo |
2008 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Solo |
2008 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Anya Tish Gallery, Houston | Solo |
2008 | Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body | The Hood Museum of Art | Group |
2008 | Far from Home | North Carolina Museum of Art | Group |
2007 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Edwynn Houk Gallery New York | Solo |
2007 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale | Solo |
2007 | Girls on the Verge: Portraits of Adolescence | Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois | Group |
2007 | Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children | DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln | Group |
2007 | Contemporary, Cool and Collected | Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte | Group |
2007 | Byond Likeness | North Dakota Museum of Art | Group |
2007 | ON THE WALL: Aperture Magazine ’05-06 | Aperture Foundation New York | Group |
2007 | NAZAR | The National Museum of Singapore, Singapore | Group |
2007 | Don’t Know Much About History | Art Space, New Haven | Group |
2007 | The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade, and Transformation | Chicago Art Institute, Chicago | Group |
2006 | Les Femmes du Maroc | Schneider Gallery, Chicago | Solo |
2006 | Converging Territories | The New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain | Solo |
2006 | Converging Territories | Joel Soroka Gallery, Aspen | Solo |
2006 | Transgressions | Williams College Museum, Williamstown | Solo |
2006 | Converging Territories | Anya Tish Gallery, Houston | Solo |
2006 | Converging Territories | Jackson Fine Arts, Atlanta | Solo |
2006 | Art That Matters: When Politics Get Personal | Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City | Group |
2006 | Images of the Middle East, Identity in the Process of Change | Danish Center for Culture and Development, Copenhagen, Denmark | Group |
2006 | NAZAR | in Berlin, IFA Gallery | Group |
2005 | Embodiments | Saltworks Gallery, Atlanta | Solo |
2005 | Converging Territories | Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston | Solo |
2005 | Converging Territories | Laurence Miller Gallery, New York | Solo |
2005 | Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self | Museum of Photographic arts, San Diego | Group |
2005 | The Painted Word | Lafayette College, Williams Center for the Arts Museum, Easton | Group |
2005 | Surface | Laurence Miller Gallery, New York | Group |
2005 | Unknown | The 2005 DeCordova Museum Annual Exhibitions | Group |
2005 | Rewind Re-Cast Review, Photography show | The Ramapo College Art Galleries | Group |
2005 | In the Company of Women | Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown | Group |
2005 | About Face: Photographic Portraits from the Collection | Chicago Art Institute, Chicago | Group |
2004 | Threshold | Mario Diacono, Ars Libri, Boston | Solo |
2004 | Photographs: Behind Closed Doors, The Lives of Women in Morocco | Schneider Gallery, Chicago | Solo |
2004 | 8th International Photography Gathering | Le Pont Gallery, Aleppo, Syria | Group |
2004 | Some of Their Parts | Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston | Group |
2003 | Converging Territories | Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston | Solo |
2001 | Photography, One Person Show | Schneider Gallery, Chicago | Solo |