Born in Tangier, Morocco, 1981. Omar Mahfoudi lives and works between Paris and Tangier.
He grew up not far from the Detroit, where he discovered painting within his family circle and drawing through personal experiments. But it was at the age of 12 that young Omar developed his eye and his technique at the Catholic school in Tangier, where he took part in art history and plastic arts courses.
At the beginning of his career, Omar Mahfoudi was quite attached to mysterious and distorted portraiture. Since moving to Paris, the artist opened up to new perspectives, taking a keen interest in landscapes and seamlessly blending realism and fantasy.
After having long proposed compositions marked by the presence of the materials, Omar Mahfoudi turned to the fluidity of liquid acrylic and ink, favouring compositions that play on the border between figuration and abstraction.
In his more recent works, the artist often depicts bathers in large-scale shots. The twilights haunting these paintings, sublimated by cold and warm tones, reflect a thwarted aspiration towards infinity and a cosmic concern for the threats facing the environment. In his very own way, Omar Mahfoudi gives form to a floating, elusive world, subject to a permanent metamorphosis. Today, the artist lives and works between Paris and Tangiers.