Sidi El Karchi (Sittard, 1979) studied at the Academie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht. Last year, Galerie Post + García hosted the solo presentation 'A search for sincere desire', which was accompanied by the publication of the same name. At the same time, the documentary 'Sidi El Karchi - Portrait of a painter' premiered in Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, which was later broadcast on Dutch National Television.
His work is included in numerous (museum) collections, including Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam Venlo, Schunck Heerlen and DSM Collection. He lives and works in Maastricht.
Stijn Huijts (director, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht) wrote the text 'Master of the human scale' about the Limburg artist for the publication 'Een zoektocht naar oprecht verlangen' [A search for genuine desire]. "While installation art, video art and photography reigned supreme in the art world, and excessive formats seemed to be a condition for the international success of artists, he steadily worked on an extremely refined oeuvre of portraits, an oeuvre in which the 'human scale' is the binding factor in every respect. Although he sometimes draws his inspiration directly from iconic works by artists such as Vermeer, Whistler, Van Gogh and Michelangelo, these art-historical quotations can ultimately be traced back to personifications of more universal, archetypal concepts and identities.
With a rucksack full of art history and a palette on which the viewer's collective memory is one of the primary colours, El Karchi presents a series of penetrating, psychological portraits that transcend visible reality because they represent timeless human emotions and experiences.
The way in which El Karchi manages to master the specific challenges of the medium also reveals his exceptional visual talent and his acquired mastery. Whether it is the challenges of the material, such as pencil, acrylic, oil paint, paper and canvas, the challenges of size and composition, or the challenges of the chromatic scheme, the coloration; everything in these works breathes a careful search for the ultimate balance in the image.
Because of the special combination of conceptual and painterly qualities, a journey of discovery into the El Karchian universe never gets boring, not least because for those who want to see it, this universe is an endless declaration of love, to art history, to painting and to mankind." (from 'Master of the human scale', by Stijn Huijts, published in 'Een zoektocht naar oprecht verlangen')
