Fez — “Graceland” opens in Casablanca’s Shart Gallery with visual allure, yet quickly turns to what the present prefers to hide. In this manifesto-like installation, artist Monia Abdelali argues for first principles. Humanity, nature, justice, and peace form the spine of a show that questions how we live with the living world.
Drawing on street art, pop, and currents in American contemporary art, Abdelali shapes a language that is hers alone. Works of varied scale and material command space while staying legible. The figurative remains, but in service of ideas. Fauna, flora, the human body, and everyday objects carry clear reflections on the state of the species and the fate of the planet.
Metal sets into wood. Plaster clings to plastic. Paper wraps and reveals. These pairings create a steady dialogue that the artist controls with care. Color leads the way. It arrives in primary tones, bright and unapologetic. Beneath pop surfaces that can feel almost childlike, color becomes a tool of resistance against the planned dulling of modern life.
After two years of starts, doubt, and renewed focus, Abdelali delivers work that is both impulsive and considered. “Graceland” reads as an alert about humanity’s path and an insistence that nature reclaim its place. The human figure appears often, not as master, but as a fragile guest inside a new equilibrium.
On the back of the sculpture “Human intelligence,” a line from Diogenes cuts through: “Stand out of my sunlight.”
“Graceland” will run in Shart Gallery from November 13 to December 27. The exhibition gathers mixed-media sculptures that invite viewers to look past first impressions and consider a different contract with the natural world.
