Lalla Essaydi

(Moroccan, born 1956)

Lalla Essaydi is a contemporary Moroccan photographer and painter. Her work focuses on Arabic female identity explored through a 19th-century Orientalist style, wherein the artist hand-paints Arabic calligraphy in henna on different surfaces, such as fabric, bodies, and walls. Her photographs address the complex reality of the power structures imposed on the Arab female body through a tradition-laden lens. As described by Essaydi, “I invite viewers to resist stereotypes.” Born in 1956 in Marrakech, Morocco, after a childhood and early adult life characterized by frequent relocation, Essaydi moved to Boston in 1996. She earned her BFA from Tufts University and a subsequent MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2003. Her work has received worldwide critical acclaim, and is held and exhibited at institutions such as the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Fries Museum in the Netherlands.