Morad Montazami, curator of New Waves, offers insight into the exhibition and into Mohamed Melehi’s work and his life as an artist and activist. He also looks at the history of the Casablanca Art School, the innovative art school in which Melehi was a leading figure, and at Melehi’s work in relation to the wider Moroccan and international art community.

Mohamed Melehi (b. 1936, Asilah, Morocco) is a painter, designer, photographer, muralist and cultural activist. His work has featured in numerous solo exhibitions including at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 1995, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 1984. He has participated in group shows in Casablanca, Baghdad, Algiers, London, Paris, Rome, Zurich and New York among others. His work is held in international museum collections including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; MOMA, New York; and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.