Taher Jaoui

Taher Jaoui (b. 1978, Tunisia)

Taher Jaoui makes large-scale paintings that are full of unconstrained raw energy. Jaoui grew up in a mathematics family and was once a financial engineer. Before becoming a visual artist, he was an actor for a few years, during which he learned to use body and movement to convey his feelings — something he came to realize connected to his artmaking process. He was also inspired by early Abstract Expressionistic theories that consider ideas of quantum mechanics in the conceptualization. As a result, Jaoui’s work is a game of intuition and reason.

Jaoui’s process involves employing his body which can be perceived through the flurry of motion on the surface of his paintings. He perpetually rotates the canvas, coming at it from all angles. Upon viewing A New Circus in Town, one will notice the enormous scale of the painting along with the utilization of many media. Jaoui uses spray paint, charcoal, oils, and acrylic paint on raw canvas to build densely layered surfaces. He activates the composition with biomorphic shapes that are reminiscent of invented creatures. Surrounding some of the shapes are abstract markings that could be read as mathematical equations. The repeated shapes and outlines of circles is an area of his work in where we can see one of his important influences.

Jaoui is inspired by the COBRA movement (1948-1951): COBRA (CO for Copenhagen, BR for Brussels, and A for Amsterdam) which was an artistic movement that advocates a return to natural primitivism and to “deculture” art. They had a deep interest in the mythological and to some extent created new myths and creatures. The group of artists were eager to descend into the strata of the human subconscious where the source from which these mythical images lie hidden, waiting to be drawn out.

In 2007, Jaoui graduated from the Paris-Sorbonne University, and is currently based in UAE where he lives and works. He has had solo exhibitions all over the world and his works are prominently featured in numerous private collections in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the USA.