Nja Mahdaoui Jafr. The Alchemy of Signs

Informal talk and book signing with the artist, in presence of the authors Venetia Porter, curator of the Islamic Collections at the British Museum; Martina Corgnati, Italian Contemporary Art specialist; and Charbel Dagher, a prominent voice of the Arab Cultural scene.

Born in 1937 in Tunis, Nja Mahdaoui lives and works in Tunisia. In 1967, he graduated from the École du Louvre (Department of Oriental Antiquities).
Nja Mahdaoui is a visual artist who considers himself “an explorer of signs”.
His work inspired by Arabic calligraphy is remarkably innovative as the aesthetic dimension of letters brings forth a strong sense of the poetic. These works arrest us with their astounding ryhthm and rich abstract composition, actually devoid of any textual meaning.
Mahdaoui’s works can be found in a number of private and public collections such as the British Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Institut
du Monde Arabe in Paris and the National Gallery of Kuala Lumpur.