Being a big fan of art, I have been pretty deprived of the art scene in Casa since my arrival. For the past few months, I stop in and out of a few galleries in Gauthier, Racine, and Anfa, but I have not been to any formal art exhibits.
In December, I met my artist friend, Mustafa, who is an artist in Casa who has worked all throughout Europe and now resides in Casa with his wife and two girls. We stopped by two art exhibits, one by Said Haji and the second by Natasha Novak.
Mustapha is pretty well known in the Casa Art Scene and he ran into all his nice, artists friends, which he nicely introduced me too. They were adorably cute and a couple of them invited me to their galleries or studios to come and see their work. One of them is suppose to be one of the most famous artists in Morocco, but this is unknown as "everyone is somebody in Casa."
The Casa folk present in these galleries did not demonstrate a huge interest in the art rather it looked more like a social event(which this has a tendency to happen with New York art galleries as well) although people seem more intrigued by the art with more questions and curiosity. Since I do not understand the language, I might be missing some conversations they were having. In general, the art scene is not so good, but not so bad(Comsi comsa). I kept asking Mustapha about each art painting, but he did not say much as he was more busy socializing. The artist did not speak much English so I was left just with my imagination and perspective on what his art represented.
With the second gallery of Natasha Novak, it was nice because I had some nice discussions on abstract art and our favorite artists. I also spoke with Natasha who is from Lljubljana, Slovenia-a city I have visited on my Europe trip. I told her how much I admired and loved her city. She was quite humble and easy going. We were both very happy to be speaking English with one another. She verbalized her admiration for my "courage" moving to Morocco and starting up a business in a foreign country. She said nowadays are much harder than before for women living in Morocco, which I am not sure if I agree with her necessarily. When I asked her about her reason for choosing Casablanca and her choices for her art collection. She said she never had an interest in dolls therefore in her current work she paints dolls, but with a variation in look(I like to call it a gothic or punk twist) Natasha also said "Casablanca is inspiring for me" "There is simplicity present within the people and the city and the people especially make you happy and smile." It was nice to hear that she was inspired in Casa as this word does not get associated much with Casa. I was quite happy to meet a new artist friend in Casa and I plan to see her again at another art exhibition coming up next week.
Said on the left, Artist middle, Mustapha right
Natasha and Priscilla
I liked this piece
In December, I met my artist friend, Mustafa, who is an artist in Casa who has worked all throughout Europe and now resides in Casa with his wife and two girls. We stopped by two art exhibits, one by Said Haji and the second by Natasha Novak.
Mustapha is pretty well known in the Casa Art Scene and he ran into all his nice, artists friends, which he nicely introduced me too. They were adorably cute and a couple of them invited me to their galleries or studios to come and see their work. One of them is suppose to be one of the most famous artists in Morocco, but this is unknown as "everyone is somebody in Casa."
The Casa folk present in these galleries did not demonstrate a huge interest in the art rather it looked more like a social event(which this has a tendency to happen with New York art galleries as well) although people seem more intrigued by the art with more questions and curiosity. Since I do not understand the language, I might be missing some conversations they were having. In general, the art scene is not so good, but not so bad(Comsi comsa). I kept asking Mustapha about each art painting, but he did not say much as he was more busy socializing. The artist did not speak much English so I was left just with my imagination and perspective on what his art represented.
With the second gallery of Natasha Novak, it was nice because I had some nice discussions on abstract art and our favorite artists. I also spoke with Natasha who is from Lljubljana, Slovenia-a city I have visited on my Europe trip. I told her how much I admired and loved her city. She was quite humble and easy going. We were both very happy to be speaking English with one another. She verbalized her admiration for my "courage" moving to Morocco and starting up a business in a foreign country. She said nowadays are much harder than before for women living in Morocco, which I am not sure if I agree with her necessarily. When I asked her about her reason for choosing Casablanca and her choices for her art collection. She said she never had an interest in dolls therefore in her current work she paints dolls, but with a variation in look(I like to call it a gothic or punk twist) Natasha also said "Casablanca is inspiring for me" "There is simplicity present within the people and the city and the people especially make you happy and smile." It was nice to hear that she was inspired in Casa as this word does not get associated much with Casa. I was quite happy to meet a new artist friend in Casa and I plan to see her again at another art exhibition coming up next week.
Said on the left, Artist middle, Mustapha right
Love the piece on the right-it was my favorite
Casa Artists
Love that chair, but you can't see it
The Amazing Cake they had for Natasha's Birthday
Fab fashion Blogger
After galleries stopped to visit some friends in Gauthier=)
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