Rachid Bouhamidi Motifs/ Patterns

Exhibition Text

Giovanni’s Room is pleased to announce “Motifs/ Patterns”, Rachid Bouhamidi's first solo exhibition with the gallery, opening on August 2 through September 9, 2023.

As a painter and percussionist, the notion of pictorial rhythm, analogous to its form in music, with its repetition, accents and fragmentation, is a central formal element in my work. The motif, sometimes painted as decorative flourishes of one sort or another or as Islamic zelige also extends to a spatial sense where the push and pull of objects in a particular composition define some pulsating, syncopation of palm fronds or the rhythmic configurations of bodies. The idea of rhythm and pattern are so inextricably related that in some sense they represent a singular visual concept. One can imagine the distilled elegance of a Matisse cut out set to the rhythm of the ska or rumba beat.

For me, the touch, the physicality of a painting and the repetitive motion of applying paint to canvas says as much about a given work of art as the narrative content defined by its subject matter. For that reason, the process by which innumerable marks and gestures of paint build up to comprise a total visual field and a painting becomes an archive of its own making. »

"The work of Rachid Bouhamini is heavy on vibrant colors as well as on repetitions of patternlike bodies and exotic plant forms. His catchy work sometimes juxtaposes portraits in interesting angular ways while also recalling colors and motifs from the 20th c. work of Max Beckmann. His mixed perspective (grounded in Moroccan, French, American, and global culture) renders his work interesting with different layers of meaning"

Rachid Bouhamidi b. 1981, live and works in Los Angeles, California. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006 and his MFA from Boston University in 2010. He has a upcoming solo exhibition at Dragon Crab and Turtle, St. Louis in October 2023.