Born in 1972 in El Kelâa Des Sraghna, Morocco, he lives and works in Marrakech, Morocco. He followed various artistic courses in the 1990s and holds several degrees (3rd year of École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Casablanca, Morocco), DNAP and DNSEP at the École Supérieure des Beaux- Arts de Bordeaux, France. He studied Arts and Media as part of the Study Abroad Program at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Selected by Simon Njami for the 12th Dak’Art – Biennale de l’art africain contemporain, Dakar, he has exhibited his work worldwide in the last 17 years: in France (Paris, and in particular in 2014-2015 at the Institut du Monde Arabe); in Morocco, in the inaugural exhibition of the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, but also in Casablanca, Rabat, Essaouira); Germany (Bayreuth, Stuttgart, Berlin), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), Mexico, Italy (Cagliari, Milan), as well as in Mali (Bamako).
Yassine Balbzioui is essentially a neo-Expressionist painter. In his generous universe he represents the human animality – most often under cover of the mask – and he uses derision, a certain sense of parody, idiocy and grotesque. The everyday life, under his unusual vision, is his principal source of inspiration, but also the world of cinema, the Z-series and horror movies, theatre and dance, tales and legends... Everything is conducive to feed his insatiable imagination. In perpetual research, he also develops works on various media like drawings, videos, ceramics and performance.
Selected exhibitions
2019 Mad, Iwalewahaus, University of Bayreuth, Germany
2019 KUBATANA, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2019 Ultrasanity Chapter 2. Invocations, SAVVY Contemporary, Gnaoua Festival, Essaouira, Morocco
2019 Blue Note, Espace Atrium, Casablanca, Morocco