Painting in the Exercise of Art is a two-part group exhibition curated by Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa, opening at the gallery’s Marrakech space on 27 December 2025. Developed in two chapters, the exhibition examines what painting becomes when it pushes beyond its traditional boundaries - materially, spatially, and conceptually.
Drawing from Lakrissa’s research on the “champ élargi” of painting, this first chapter of the exhibition focuses on works that question the limits of the medium itself. Paintings, installations, sculptural forms, photographic processes and film works come together to reveal a pictorial field in constant evolution. Here, the canvas is not a fixed support but a point of departure: pigment meets volume, gesture enters space, and the artwork extends into an environment activated by the viewer.
This opening chapter invites audiences to consider painting not only as a medium but as an operation, an active site of experimentation that absorbs other disciplines. The second chapter of this exhibition, scheduled for February 2026 during the 1-54 art fair, will extend this trajectory by tracing the shift from the frontal logic of painting toward sculptural and installation-based modes, highlighting the ways contemporary artists redefine how the pictorial takes place in space.
Bringing together works by Walid Ardhaoui, Nassim Azarzar, Mustapha Azeroual, Amina Benbouchta, Khadija El Abyad, Radia Lamrani, Elladj Lincy Deloumeaux and Amina Rezki, the exhibition underscores the ongoing interconnectedness between painting and the broader intermedial landscape of contemporary art.
