This contemporary artwork features a striking juxtaposition of elements. The central focus is a black-and-white image of a child riding a bicycle, set against a backdrop of a hazy, urban skyline in monochrome tones. The composition is layered, with a wire mesh fence adding visual texture and a sense of confinement. The overall aesthetic blends realism and abstraction, with the realistic depiction of the child contrasted by the more impressionistic cityscape. The work seems to explore themes of childhood, urban life, and the tension between freedom and constraint. The artist's intention may be to capture a moment of youthful exuberance within the confines of a complex, modern environment. ...
Mariam Abouzid Souali's works plunge us into a universe linked to childhood: that of play. Alone or in groups, the artist's childlike figures evolve in landscapes of familiar architecture, yet always imbued with a disturbing strangeness.Motorway interchanges, mining fields, industrial ports seem to take on a new meaning through the cohabitation with those beings who are normally absent from them: children.The juxtaposition between these two worlds, the world of childhood play that the artist links to the rural world, and the world of liberal globalisation, allows Mariam Abouzid Souali to weave sensitive links and leads us to question the function of our multi-speed world, its inequalities of development and the destruction caused by the frantic race for development. ...
Galerie Cecile Fakhoury opened its doors in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in September 2012. In May 2018, the gallery inaugurated its second space in Dakar, Senegal and a showroom in Paris, France. Shortly after, in March 2020, a new project space dedicated to emerging artists from Africa opened in Abidjan. In October 2021, Galerie Cecile Fakhoury inaugurated another gallery, opening in the 8th arrondissement of Paris on Avenue Matignon. The gallery promotes contemporary art from Africa and the Diaspora by providing visibility to the artistic diversity and creative spirit from the continent. Through its programming of solo and group exhibitions, participation in international art fairs, biennales, and collaboration with international galleries, Cecile Fakhoury is a leading force putting contemporary African art on the global map. The artists represented by the gallery are distinguished by their cultural identities and stories, they create a new language that crosses geographical boundaries and familiarities. They are observers of the world they live in, critics of society, and committed to their positions living within complex histories. In turn, they ask us to reconsider our own relation to the world. ...
