Elmarsa Gallery Presents the Work Of Painter Abderrazak Sahli

The comprehensive oeuvre spans the Tunisian artist’s impressive and important body of work

Elmarsa Gallery, a Tunisia-based contemporary gallery that promotes artists from the Arab world and beyond, is now presenting the work of Abderrazak Sahli (1941-2009), one of the most important Tunisian abstract painters of the 20th century. Through a selection of paintings, sculptures and installation works, the exhibition gives audiences the opportunity to see an oeuvre that audiences around the world know little about. 

Sahli, who embodied a profound sense of humanity and emotion, highlights a variety of coexisting attitudes and strategies trough his perception of contemporary art. Educated in the Koranic school of Zeitouniyya, his life and work explored the disfiguration and sonorisation of words and texts from as early as 1965. The exhibition at Elmarsa puts forth a wide range of the media within which he worked, from photography and prints to painting and sculpture. Taking viewers on a chronological journey of his artistic changes, from his figurative paintings to his more conceptual work. Using the medium of painting to react to a variety of stimuli, Sahli mixes unconscious elements with what mankind perceives as conscious – an element of his work that has been contributed to the artist being considered one of the most important painters of his time.

Abderrazak Sahli (1941–2009): Tolerance and Peace showcases at Elmarsa Gallery, Al Serkal Avenue until December 24, 2016