Space776 and Uncommon Beauty Gallery are proud to present <Tribe of the forgotten,> an entirely new body of work by Tunisian-born artist Taher Jaoui who lives and works in Madrid, Spain. The exhibition is on view from October 1 to 20. This is Jaoui’s second solo show in New York. 

 

Mengna Da, an independent curator, recently wrote about Taher Jaoui and his practice:

“The endless 2020 isolation and lockdowns prompted Jaoui to explore new territory in his art. Jaoui has long been known for abstract paintings with wild compositions, a full palette, and a wide array of textures. In 2020 during his self-quarantine, Jaoui started to conjure figures as a vehicle to express his desires for human connection and self-reflection. Unlike his previous work where countless elements run to every corner of the canvas, his figurative paintings are carefully choreographed to render figurative shapes while retaining his signature visual lexicon of abstract shapes and mathematic symbols.

 

Jaoui’s figures, deprived of any noticeable human features, become a playground of free souls, one that allows a breath of free air. Before becoming a visual artist, Jaoui was an actor for a few years, during which he learned to use body and movement to convey emotions, which are now transferred onto his paintings. Full of energy, his figures serve as an entry point for the viewers to explore their inner feelings with no limits.”

 

<Tribe of the forgotten> goes one step further and pays tribute to all the unknown and forgotten people that the pandemic has hurt worst. It reflects on Kafka’s work Metamorphosis, in which a salesman suddenly wakes up transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. Taher’s new body of works reflects on the sudden and unexpected physical and psychological transformation induced by the pandemic.

 

From The magician to The skeptical, Jaoui depicts the loneliness and sometimes despair but also the hope and love of the forgotten people. A composition like A Desert meeting or The nihilistic front conveys the joy of getting back together to celebrate a return to a new and reinvented normal. It celebrates humanity’s ability to adapt to any situation sending all of us a ray of hope.