Waiting for Omar Gatlato: A Survey of Contemporary Art from Algeria and Its Diaspora

Twenty-five artists who engage with the legacies of Orientalist figuration, modernist abstraction, monumental public art, conceptual art, and postmodern media theory in a postindependence context.

Artists who belong to Algeria are caught between a national mythology that does not represent them and a historical space blanked out by state-sanctioned amnesia on both sides of the Mediterranean. This book presents the work of twenty-five such artists. They offer diverse representations of everyday life and are rigorously critical in their engagement with the legacies of Orientalist figuration, modernist abstraction, monumental public art, Conceptual art, and postmodern media theory after 1962, in a postindependence context.

Contributors

Alexander Alberro, Madeleine Dobie, Daho Djerbal, Emilie Goudal, Fanny Gillet-Ouhenia, Nadira Laggoune-Aklouche, Natasha Marie Llorens, Nawel Louerrad, Samira Negrouche, Zahia Rahmini, Wassellya Tamzali

Artwork by

Louisa Babari, Fay al Baghriche, Bardi, Mouna Bennamani, Adel Bentounsi, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Halida Boughriet, Fatima Chafaa, EL Meya, Hakima El Djoudi, Karim Ghelloussi, Mounir Gouri, Mourad Krinah, Nawel Louerrad, Amina Menia, Sonia Merabet, Yazid Oulab, Lydia Ourahmane, Sadek Rahim, Dania Reymond, Sara Sadik, Fethi Sahraoui, Massinissa Selmani, Fella Tamzali Tahari, Djamel Tatah, Sofiane Zouggar

The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Waiting for Omar Gatlato, curated by Natasha Marie Llorens and organized by the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, October 26, 2019-March 15, 2020.