Dalila Dalléas Bouzar

Dalila Dalléas Bouzar was born in Oran, Algeria in 1974 and she lives in Bordeaux. She graduated in biology and later studied painting at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Dalila began drawing at an early age.

Her paintings are deeply expressive; whirling energy seems to emerge from the image vortex, such as the sitter's gaze or a powerful light source. Dalila's distinctive pictorial methodology often involves performance; in these instances, her own body becomes a canvas to paint or the subject of a ritual. The portraits capture the vigour of the human spirit that dignify and empower bodies, particularly women's, to whom she bestows warrior attributes, mystery and radiance.

Fundamentally, her practice is a deliberate act of reclamation. As an African woman, she underscores the nuances between oppression and freedom and assumes due agency to picture people from a place of recognition that defies the colonial gaze. She appropriates western materials such as oil paint and techniques from western painting, historically connected to orientalist depictions of Maghrebi people. Employing this reverse anthropology of sorts as her strategy, she confronts patriarchy and coloniality by shining a light of intimacy on her characters.

Dalila's work has been exhibited widely in France and Africa, including the Dakar Biennial in 2016 and 2018, Cairo Biennial, 2018, SAFFCA Johannesburg, 2018 and Musée des Civilisations Noires, Dakar, Senegal, 2019.