Rachid Koraïchi () is an Algerian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

, sculptor, print-maker and ceramicist, noted for his contemporary artwork which integrates

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

as a graphic element.

Life and career

Rachid Koraïchi was born on 20 January 1947 in Ain Beida, Algeria into a

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

family of Qu'ranic scholars and copyists. He received his early art education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Algeria, where he studied calligraphy. Later, he attended the

École des Arts Décoratifs École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région ...

and the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. His Sufi upbringing has influenced much of his work by giving him an abiding fascination with scripts and symbols. For Koraïchi, writing is sacred and charged with meaning. His work makes extensive use of Arabic calligraphy as well as

glyphs A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...

drawn from other languages. He has produced work in varied media, including

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, painting, and printmaking, and often collaborates with local artisans in his work.

Work

His work has been exhibited very widely, including at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

(2001) and

MOMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

(2006),''Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking'' (2006 exhibition), MOMA
/ref> and is also in the collection of the

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

, Washington D.C. Selected exhibitions * 1998 ''Jardin du Paradis,'' Festival International des jardins. Chaumont-sur-loire. Leighton House, London. * 1999 ''Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s,'' Queens Museum of Art, New York. * 1999-2000 ''Lettres d'Argile,'' Contemporary Art Museum, Caracas, Venezuela, Limoges and Algeria * 2000 ''L'Enfant Jazz,'' Institut de monde arabe, Paris, France * 2001 ''Beirut's Poem and Path of Roses,'' National Gallery of Fine Art, Amman, Jordan. * 2002 ''Rachid Koraïchi: 7 Variations autour de l'Indigo,'' Marseille, Vieille Charit et Alors Hors Du Temps. * 2003 ''Africa Informs,'' October Gallery, London, 2003.

References

External links

Bio from the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian InstitutionLonger bio, arab-art.org
- in French {{DEFAULTSORT:Koraichi, Rachid 1947 births Living people Algerian artists Algerian contemporary artists 21st-century Algerian people