Elias Loudiyi

Elias Loudiyi is a French-Moroccan artist whose practice explores memory, family heritage, and the traces we leave behind. Freshly graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and having won Prix Agnès B, Elias Loudiyi works primarily with charcoal and oil pastels on raw jute and linen. Loudiyi transforms family photographs of his mother, grandmother, and grandfather into intimate, photorealistic paintings. Working in large image formats gives freedom to his gestures. Highly inspired by the works of Cy Twombly, Loudiyi highly regards the visuality of free and brute lines as a starting point. He begins the process with a line on the canvas to assess what is important to leave empty and what needs to be filled. Emptiness plays a crucial role in his paintings.