Zakaria Ramhani

Art Brokerage: Zakaria Ramhani Moroccan Artist: b. 1983. He is known for his large-scale paintings that use Arabic calligraphy as a formal gesture. He has caused controversy with the political nature of his art that deals with issues of Middle Eastern politics and the Arab Spring. Authorities at Art Dubai last year censored Ramhani's You Were My Only Love for its depiction of police brutality in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Ramhani altered the famous image of the "blue bra woman," who became a symbol of Egyptian protest against extreme military power, showing her struggling against gorillas as Vincent Van Gogh looks on disapprovingly. Ramhani grew up in a Muslim society and in an artistic household; his father was a landscape painter who avoided portraying the human figure for religious reasons. He occasionally had to paint commissioned portraits and explained to his son that he would ask God's forgiveness. The paradox at the core of Ramhani's work is the tradition of aniconism in Islam. His fascination with portraiture is at odds with the practice of Islamic calligraphy, which has long been a venerated art form for representing the divine. In 2006, Ramhani became the youngest Moroccan citizen to be awarded a residency from the French government at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Since then, he has exhibited in Europe and the Middle East, including at the Barbican Centre in London, Centre d'Exposition Val-d'Or in Quebec, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Dakar Biennale, the Bahrain National Museum, the Cairo Biennale, and the British Museum at DIFC Dubai. He had one of the top ten highest auction results for artists under 30 in 2010. His work is in the collections of the Barjeel Foundation, the Alain-Dominique Perrin Collection, and the Royal family of Morocco. Listings wanted.