Yazid Oulab

Yazid Oulab was born in 1958 near Constantine in Algeria. Son of a mechanic and a French teacher, he is also the nephew of the writer Kateb Yacine.

As a teenager, he often went to his uncle’s, where he discovered the effervescence and intellectual dynamism of artistic circles. At the age of 22, he decided to study art and did everything possible to be accepted at the School of Fine Arts in Algiers. He spent nearly 6 years there before leaving for Marseille in 1988 to join the Lumigny School of Art. He also worked on construction sites to pay for his studies, particularly in masonry, where he acquired gestures and techniques that were invaluable to his artistic practice.

In 2008, he participated in the exhibition Les Traces du Sacré at the National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou and was a resident artist at the Calder studio from February to July 2009. He was chosen this year to inaugurate the new building of the FRAC PACA on the occasion of Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013.

A man with a thousand facets and an ancestral soul, Yazid Oulab is an artist who seems nourished by centuries of the most diverse and richest civilizations. He presents himself as an interpreter and a messenger, capable of analyzing and transcribing through simplified objects millennia of cultural, social and spiritual histories.

An indisputable craftsman in love with gesture, a fascinated and fascinating poet for whom the gaze gives birth to meaning, a tireless and potentially omniscient witness, Yazid Oulab embodies the figure of the accomplished artist. That of a man who, far from the excesses specific to our current societies, would be ready to give art its new letters of nobility.

His works, objects, installations, sculptures, or videos are all tools of expression and communication that push us to consider the cultural plurality of our time while measuring the historical significance of everything.

As for him, much more than a visual artist, he is a true “storyteller”. Guide and philosopher, he makes us discover, or rediscover, the origins of writing, numbers, spirituality, religions, or Nations. Between legends and stories to build Yazid Oulab is a frontier being who, like his favorite nails, strives to create links.

Son of a worker-mechanic-farmer father and an intellectual mother,a  French teacher, he represents, not only in his works but also in his life, the perfect balance between the work of the hand and the mind. A manual as well as a spiritual creator, he corrects the unfair dichotomy that would aim to separate these two complementary dimensions of design.

Solo exhibitions

2022

La flamme germe, Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis, Tunisie.

2021

Les Outils de la peinture, Art Contemporary Center of Saint-Restitut, France

2019

Poèmes Graphiques, Espace Safran, Amiens

2018

Triangulation, Selma Feriani Gallery, Sidi Bou Said

L’espace de la pensée, Espace Art Absolument, Paris.

Particules, Galerie Loft, Paris, France

2017

À la pointe, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris

2016

Survivances, Gallery Caroline Pagès, Lisbon

2015

Portée, Galerie Selma Feriani, Tunis

2014

Survivances, Gallery Caroline Pagès, Lisbon

2013

Entre deux rives, Galerie Loft, Paris, France

Peu à peu quoique aussitôt #1- le temps de la métamorphose, FRAC PACA

Le désir du rivage, Centre Richebois, Marseille, France

Project Ulysses by the Voyons Voir association, Rochebois Center, France

2012

L’ère du graphite, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

2011

L’âge du graphite, Maison Salvan, Labege, France

2010

Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

Tailler la montagne, ESAC Pau Expo, Pau., France

2009

Yazid Oulab Atelier Calder, Saché, France

Yazid Oulab Maison Max Ernst, Huismes.
Yazid Oulab Eglise Saint Nicolas, Tavant, France

Le lien, Centre d’art contemporain, Saint-Restitut, France

2008

Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

2007

Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

2003

Musée Archéologique d’Istres, France

2002

Galerie du Tableau, Marseille, France

2000

Médiathèque de Miramas, France

1997

Galerie du Tableau, Marseille, France

Group exhibitions

2026

DIALOGUES: L’écriture comme matière chez les artistes du monde arabe, Espace Art Absolument, Paris, France

2025

Traits d’esprit, Galerie Loft, Paris, France

Monumental, Inauguration of the Sculpture Garden, Loft Gallery, Paris

2022

Corps & Âmes, Galerie LOFT, Paris

À fleur de peau III : le dessin à l’épreuve du temps, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

Art Absolument, 20 ans avec les artistes, Espace Art Absolument, Paris.

Prenez garde à la peinture ! Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

2021

ALEPH – א, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

2020

Prête-moi ton rêve, exposition panafricaine itinérante. The Foundation for the Development of Contemporary African Culture (FDCCA)

2019

Waiting for Omar Gatlato: Contemporary Art from Algeria and its Diaspora, University

Remake, Frac Normandie Rouen

2018

IN SITU Patrimoine et Art Contemporain, 7th edition, abbaye of Gellone at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert.

Sahara : What is written will remain, Galleria delle Prigioni, Treviso, Italy.

Al Musiqa, Voices and Music from the Arab World, Philharmonie of Paris.

2017

Destinerrance, MAC Arteum, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge.

Ils dessinent tous, Contemporary art center, St Restitut.

Entrée en matière, Richebois Center, Marseille.

2016

Sacrées Graines, The Institute of Islamic Cultures, Paris.

Répétitions, Villa Saint-Hilaire, Grasse. 

J’ai des certitudes sur mes doutes, L’Artothéque, Caen, France.

36 – 36, Artists Celebrate 80 Years of Paid Holidays, France.  

Saint-François d’Assise – L’homme intemporel, Cathedral of Major, Marseille.      

2015

Là où commence le jour, Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art, Lille, France.

Galerie Ferme de la Chapelle,  Grand-Lancy.

2014

Biennale of Busan, South Korea.

Les artistes de la galerie, galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

Sèvres Outdoors, Cité de la céramique, Sèvres.

Avoir 10 + 1, Contemporary Art Center of St Restitut.

2013

ICI, là et au-delà, Institut des cultures de l’Islam, Paris.

La main invente le dessin, Centre culturel, Saint-Riquier Abbey, Somme Bay

Des mondes dessinés acquisitions récentes 2009 – 2013, Fonds régional d’art contemporain Picardie, Amiens.

La ville dessine, Galerie nationale de la tapisserie, Beauvais

Blicksachsen 9, Bad Homburg, Germany

Logique de la Mappemonde, National School of Fine Arts of Bourges, Bourges

Ici, ailleurs, Marseille-Provence 2013, Friche la Belle de mai, Tour Panorama, Marseille.

Ressources poétiques, un nouvel accrochage de la collection, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse.

L’art au défi de l’espérance, City hall of the 6th arrondissement, Paris.

2012

Ponctuation 11 / Le dessin éveillé, LAAC, Dunkerque

Ponctuation 15 / Éclats du monde, Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, France

Traits d’Union, The Venue/solidere, Beyrouth, Lebanon

Trait papier, Museum of Fine Arts of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Traits d’Union, Musée national de Sanaa, Yemen 

2011

Magreb : Dos Orillas, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

Traits d’union – Paris et l’art contemporain arabe, Villa Emerige, Paris, France

L’art comme un plaisir au quotidien, Bourg-en-Bresse, France

Le moins du monde, FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France

Small, Medium, Large, Donjon de Vez, France

En ce lieu ou presque #1, Domaine de Saint Ser, France

Architectures / Utopies / Dessins, CNAP collection, MNAC, Bucharest, Romania

Wishing and praying, ADAA Art show, CRG Gallery, New York, USA

Wishing and praying, CRG Gallery, New York, USA

Tenir debout, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes, France

2010

Tenir debout, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes, France

Les Afriques autrement, Maison des arts, Bagneux, France

Des intrus au musée, Musée d’art et d’histoire, Chinon, France

Sans crayon sans gomme, Galerie des Grands Bains Douches de la Plaine, Marseille, France

2009

Nous, vous, ils ou elles, FRAC Picardie, Amiens, France

À Fleur de peau II – Le dessin à l’épreuve, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

Traversées, Espace Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan

Out of storage II, Rythmes, Mudam, Luxembourg, France

2008

Cent, Galerie Defrost, Paris.
(A)pesanteur, FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France

Machines à rêve / Video Short List, Passage de Retz, Paris, exposition itinérante

Traces du Sacré, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Traces du Sacré, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Allemagne.
Palais de la Culture, Alger, France

2007

The Troubled Waters of Permeability, Parker’s Box, NY, USA

MUDAM Guest House 07, MUDAM Luxembourg, France

Dialogues Méditerranéens, Saint-Tropez, France

2005

À Fleur de peau, Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France

La Nuit Blanche, Église Saint-Séverin, Paris ; Galerie des Bains Douches, Marseille, France

2004

Voyage d’artistes, Espace Electra, Paris, France

2003

Galerie Martagon, Malaucène, France

Le Rectangle, Lyon, France

Le jardin de Leïla, Domaine Laval Park, Lyon, France

1998

Château de Servières, Marseille, France

1997

Culture et Entreprise, School of Fine Arts, Aix-en-Provence, France

1996

Sur invitation, Les Ateliers d’artistes de la ville de Marseille, France

1995

Les Effets du voyage, 25 artistes algériens, Palace of Culture, Le Mans, France

1987

Ankara Biennale, Türkiye

Public collections

2015

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal.

2013

FRAC Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Marseille.

FRAC Picardie, Amiens.

2012

Donation from the Guerlain Foundation to the Centre Pompidou, France

2010

City of Marseille, France

2009

Abattoirs Museum, Toulouse, France

2008

FNAC, Paris, France

FRAC Picardie, Amiens, France

2006

Grand-Duc Jean Museum of Modern Art Foundation, Luxembourg, France

Museum of Abattoirs, Toulouse, France

2005

National Museum of Modern Art, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France