Exhibition
Rachid Koraïchi: Celestial Blue
7 Mar 2024 – 13 Apr 2024
Regular hours
- Monday
- Closed
- Tuesday
- 12:30 – 17:30
- Wednesday
- 12:30 – 17:30
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 17:30
- Friday
- 12:30 – 17:30
- Saturday
- 12:30 – 17:30
- Sunday
- Closed
Free admission
Address
- 24 Old Gloucester Street
- London
- WC1N 3AL
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Tube: Holborn/Russell Square
October Gallery presents Celestial Blue, a solo exhibition of new works by the renowned artist Rachid Koraïchi.
About
Born in the Aurès mountains of Algeria, Koraïchi’s creative explorations have employed an impressive range of media, which include paintings on canvas, paper and silk, bronze, wood and steel sculptures, ceramics and textiles. Koraïchi’s abiding fascination with signs of all kinds is the unwavering constant informing his conscious and finely detailed work.
In accordance with Koraïchi’s predilection for the magical number 7 – considered significant in all the major traditions – Celestial Blue celebrates the artist’s 77th year. This exhibition includes canvas works interspersed with statuesque steel sculptures, in his characteristically figurative forms. The works on canvas are inspired by the nasibs that the 12th century Sufi mystic and writer, Ibn ‘Arabi, set down in his book of love poems, The Interpreter of Desires (1215). Each large, square canvas present an original design produced in white on an indigo blue ground that improvises upon one of the original poems. Rather than being a direct translation, each work becomes a sustained reflection on the profundity of Ibn ‘Arabi’s original vision, offering a visual correlative to the ideas expressed in a modified, entirely contemporary form.
Celestial Blue continues Koraïchi’s unique exploration of the spiritual path and its fundamental message of Tolerance for all. His art reveals how ancient practices still have relevance today.