Working From Life

About

Yamou is inspired by the natural world, by organic processes, continuity and change, the tensions and instabilities of boundaries and of spaces in between. Yet beneath the surface of these beautiful paintings, produced in both large and small scale, there is an underlying sense of disquiet.

Yamou's latest work suggests the analogy between the cellular and the cosmic ' the germination of a seed or the birth of a star ' creating a process he terms 'stellar germination'. The fluid yet refined backgrounds of these paintings act as backdrops to the interplay between different forces and energies ' forming spaces similar to those revealed by both aerial views and microscopic inspection.

In these paintings Yamou appears to capture a frozen moment, yet he also manages to suggest potential forms and spaces, which grow, move, evolve and mutate. These works also offer an original interpretation of the use of organic forms in traditional Islamic art and design, with Yamou creating more purely abstract and stylized renderings of vegetal forms.

Abderrahim Yamou was born in Casablanca in 1959. He left Morocco to study biology in France, before changing to sociology with a focus on researching contemporary Moroccan art. He gave up his studies to become a self-taught artist, working in both painting and sculpture. He has exhibited widely in group and solo shows throughout Europe and North Africa. He lives between Paris and Marrakech.

Exhibition opens 28 September 2012 until 16 November 2012, 11am-6pm Tuesday ' Saturday, entrance free