Loft Art Gallery is participating in the inaugural edition of Frieze Abu Dhabi this November with Transmission, a duo presentation bringing together two generations of renowned Moroccan artists: pioneering modernist Malika Agueznay and her daughter, multidisciplinary artist Amina Agueznay, currently representing Morocco in its first-ever national pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.
Bringing together five works by Malika Agueznay, including two sculptures, alongside two textile works by Amina Agueznay, the presentation explores transmission as both inheritance and transformation. Spanning two generations of Moroccan artists, the booth traces a dialogue between a pioneering figure of post-independence Moroccan modernism and a contemporary practice that continues to engage with and transform inherited forms, materials and ways of making.
A key figure of the Casablanca Art School, Malika Agueznay has spent more than five decades developing a visual language rooted in abstraction, organic forms and Moroccan vernacular culture. Emerging from a generation of artists who sought to redefine modernism through local histories and craft traditions, her work contributed to the development of a distinctly Moroccan artistic language in the decades following independence.
In dialogue with these works, her daughter Amina Agueznay draws on ancestral knowledge, collective modes of making and traditional craft practices, approaching transmission as a working methodology.
Born in Casablanca in 1963, Amina Agueznay initially trained as an architect in the United States, where she practised for a decade before returning to Morocco and undertaking extensive research into traditional artisanal practices. Her work emerges from participatory processes developed in sustained dialogue with master artisans across Morocco, particularly in the Atlas Mountains, an approach that has become central to her practice. Working across textile, installation and sculpture, Agueznay combines structural thinking with manual craftsmanship, transforming inherited techniques into contemporary spatial systems. The tension between architectural geometry and the texture and fluidity of material underpins this ongoing formal research.
Transmission consequently operates on several levels within the presentation: between mother and daughter, between generations, between artisans and artists, and between inherited knowledge and contemporary artistic practice. Both artists engage with Moroccan vernacular culture as a living source of knowledge and creation, demonstrating how artistic languages endure through continual reinterpretation.
