Djamel Tatah

Djamel Tatah’s refined paintings reveal the way in which humanity can assert itself as a presence in the world. From reality, ordinary life and world events, the artist paints life-size figures which seem to be suspended in time, set in unspecified places and caught up in a world of silence. Reinterpreting solitude as virtue, Tatah intends to surpass reality, experimenting with colour, light and line to explore his feelings of being part of the world.

Tatah says that his “painting is silent, and imposing silence on all the chaos of life is almost like making a political statement. It allows one to step back and examine one’s relationship to others and to society as a whole”.

> Exhibition catalogue, Djamel Tatah at the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Etienne (2014).