Visual artist Larbi Cherkaoui takes over L’Atelier 21 in Casablanca from April 21 to May 23, 2026, for his second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Entitled Une expérience-limite de la lettre, the exhibition is dedicated to the plasticity of the letter, both as form and gesture.
For more than three decades, Larbi Cherkaoui has explored the field of the Arabic letter, pursuing his work in a manner akin to Sufi thought, where the path matters more than the destination. In this exhibition, he pushes the letter into new territories of experimentation, moving from the monumental to the infinitely small. Tiny letters, assembled into dense masses, create a dynamic presence and rhythm, resembling swarms that seem capable of shifting direction or leaping out of the composition.
As art critic Abderrahman Benhamza writes: “An eminently plastic element, Cherkaoui’s letter, isolated and centered, appears—at least initially—as a performed and effective ‘artefact’. A binary palette (red and black) defines it, enriched by nuanced shades of saffron-tinted or orangey greys. Cherkaoui has further developed his characteristic approach to lettering, always structured around rhythm, balance, and contrast.”
He continues: “Cherkaoui has freed himself entirely from normativity and constraint. A pictorial blur has emerged, driven by a subjective dynamic. The artist no longer addresses the intelligibility of the letter as he once did by shaping and naming it. Everything is now orchestrated to obscure it, even erase it. He invites us to what Abdelkébir Khatibi would call ‘a true celebration of the invisible’.”
Born in 1972 in Marrakech, Larbi Cherkaoui holds a degree in applied arts. His slow, patient, and meticulous process is elevated to the level of a vocation; for the artist, creating is a form of prayer.
His works are held in numerous public and private collections, including the Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Tunis, the Museum of Archaeology of Silves (Portugal), Fondation ONA (Morocco), Bank Al-Maghrib (Morocco), Saham Bank (Morocco), Royal Mansour (Morocco), and La Mamounia (Morocco).
The artist lives and works in Marrakech.
Press release from L’Atelier 21
Image: Larbi Cherkaoui. Souffle. 2025. Technique mixte sur peau. 112 x 200. Image courtesy of the artist and L’Atelier 21
