Yossi Milo Gallery presents the New York premiere of the series My Rockstars of Hassan Hajjaj | with exuberant and playful media portraits of artists, musicians and friends of the artist taken from around the world. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.
In his My Rockstars series, Hassan Hajjaj pays homage to the people he was artistically inspired by, capturing a range of international performers, record artists and visual artists such as Hank Willis Thomas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Cardi B., to lesser-known music groups like Arfoud Brothers and Nigerian singer-songwriter Keziah Jones. Since 2000, Hajjaj has been photographing these characters in colorful ephemeral studios built from textiles and plastic mats typical of Morocco and North Africa, which he installs in the streets of London, Marrakech, Dubai, Kuwait and Paris. Outfits designed or styled by the artist, including custom costumes, shoes and hats, appear in vivid colors and dazzling patterns, allowing her subjects to explore larger-than-life figures on camera. Each portrait is lined with a custom handcrafted frame outfitted with miniature shelves and actual consumer goods, such as cans of tomato sauce, cans of car paint, and soda cans, often with Arabic logos. The products are chosen for their origins, their names, their content as well as their colors and aesthetics. The unbroken border of commercial packaging and corporate logos with irreverent Warholian reflections mimics the repeating patterns framing traditional Islamic mosaics and offers clues to the subject of each photograph.
In the tradition of former African masters of studio photography such as Samuel Fosso (Cameroonian, born 1962), Malick Sidibé (Malian, 1935-2016) and Sanlé Sory (Burkinabé, born 1943), Hajjaj explores the portrait to express evolving notions of self and society in today’s modern and globalized world. In the studio space, Hajjaj captures the international nature of today’s popular culture, fashion and music.
A site-specific installation, Le Salon, will also be on display in the gallery’s viewing room with bespoke furniture and interior design elements meant to encourage the local exchange of ideas, just as larger exhibitions celebrate the cultural exchange and hybridity across the world stage. . A single-channel video installation featuring performances by select members of Hajjaj’s ‘rockstar’ ensemble will also be on display, as well as ‘curiosity showcases’ featuring shelves of hand-crocheted hats and socks that the artist is obtained in its local souk of Marrakech or other. markets around the world.
A solo exhibition by VOGUE, The Arab Issue by Hajjaj will be presented simultaneously at Fotografiska New York. Hajjaj’s works are represented in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Farjam Collection, Dubai; Institute of Cultures of Islam, Paris; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis; Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome; Al Maaden Contemporary African Art Museum, Marrakech; and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, among others. Hajjaj was born in 1961, in Larache, Morocco, and currently lives and works between London and Marrakech.
Hassan Hajjaj: My Rockstars
25 mars – 15 mai 2021
Yossi Milo Gallery
245 10th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Extended hours on opening day: Thursday, March 25, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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