[ HASSAN ] HAJJAJ

Hassan Hajjaj (Moroccan and British, b. 1961) is a mixed media artist who over his three-decade career has fused Western pop cultural elements with traditional Islamic aesthetics. He draws from his nonconventional training as a photographer, stylist, furniture designer and club promoter in London’s 1980s underground music scene to create visually bold, conceptually nuanced portraits. For his series My Rockstars, Hajjaj dresses the photographed subjects—artists and musician friends—in outfits with colors, patterns and shapes that evoke the vibrancy of Moroccan souks with contemporary detailing more common to east London’s hipsters or south London’s fashionable crowd. For Kesh Angels, women pose with their motorbikes in colorful hijabs and counterfeit designer djellabas in the streets of Marrakech, or are staged like comic book superheroes against woven African mats or textiles. Hajjaj’s custom frames outfitted with miniature shelves and actual consumer products extend his photo-based portraits into Pop-influenced, material investigations of cultural identity and global consumerism that celebrate everyday life and demonstrate the international nature of popular culture, fashion and music today. The uninterrupted border of commercial packaging and corporate logos also mimics with irreverent Warholian flare the repetitive motifs framing traditional Islamic mosaics.

Moroccan-British photographer Hassan Hajjaj is one of the most exciting talents working in Marrakech today. Mixing photography, pop culture and furniture design, Hassan Hajjaj has created 30 years of artwork that celebrates what a culture can offer as unique while also recognising what people everywhere have in common. Inspired by music, fashion, London's underground parties and the souks of Marrakesh, Hajjaj's work is born out of his time living in both countries and the view he was given of Morocco once he went to live in the UK.

​

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Andy Warhol of Marrakech’, Hajjaj is very much a child of the pop art generation. His work encompasses many techniques and fields, from designing and producing furniture including lamps, stools and poufs made from recycled North African objects to custom made clothes and photography. The artist lives and works between London, England and Marrakech, Morocco and is represented by The Third Line (Dubai).