Self-taught artist Anuar Khalifi's drawings and paintings are characterised by bright colours and cartoonish figures appearing in playful scenes with a touch of irony. Drawing inspiration from a plethora of sources—including stereotypes of Islamic culture and contemporary society, and his experiences of living in Spain and Morocco—the artist considers the ideas of colonialism, Orientalism, extremism, and consumerism.
Read MoreSeemingly humorous and innocuous, Anuar Khalifi's figures are often engaged in destructive or dubious activities. His recurring cast includes young boys and adults, who are considered autobiographical representations of the artist. In one painting—Paris, London, NY, L.A—two boys are embroiled in a fist fight as a group of men surround them, the men's smiles radiantly white and eerily wide against a background of neon pink flowers and a vivid blue sky. The simplified forms of the artist's characters contrast with the gravity of their violence, such as the figure who shoots with his rifle at a turban-wearing figure in drawing D19, or a young boy who spits from a flying carpet in another drawing: D11.
Borrowing motifs from Muslim and contemporary popular culture for his paintings, Anuar Khalifi constructs enigmatic scenes. A pink, cartoonish figure wearing a red fez appears in several paintings of varied backdrops, from the green foliage of the triptych The belly of the beast to snow-capped mountains with faces in ALI BABA CREW (2012). The mountains return in Desoriente (2013), which centres on a young man in a tall red hat-mask reminiscent of the fez, while a turban-wearing figure and a pattern evoking Islamic architecture can be made out behind him. In Dizzy Wishes, the boy—identified by his hat and grey shirt—rows a boatful of people and animals; the pink blobby character is present here as well, holding a hookah pipe in its hand.
At his solo exhibition Forever Is A Current Event at The Third Line, Dubai (2019), Khalifi presented new paintings that continue to expand his interest in tradition and an increasingly globalised world, examples including works such as Al Haddid (2019): an acrylic painting featuring a man dressed in white seated on the bonnet of a white car, with suggestions of a desert in the background. Reflecting the wide range of Khalifi's inspiration, the show derived its title from the politically pungent lyrics of 'No Time to Pretend': a 2016 song by rapper Yasiin Bey (previously known as Mos Def).
Khalifi's solo exhibitions also include Desoriente (2015), which inaugurated Mothership, Barcelona, and included works by the artist from between 2013 and 2014, and Dust, Roses, & Cockroaches (2018) at Galerie Shart, Casablanca.
Khalifi works and lives in Tangier.
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2020
