Artist Marwen El Hicheri last Final Friday reception with DJ Madcow

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT
Add to Your Calendar
Added by Matt Rajkowski

@ Studio 180

Please join us at Studio 180 Salon in June for our next Cary Art Loop Final Friday reception as we feature artist Marwen El Hicheri.

Marwen “Mani” El Hicheri was born and raised in Tunisia and educated in Paris, France. His Parents are of North African descent.

In 1984, Mani moved to Paris to attend a school for art and architecture. Early on, he was interested in street photography and the vibrancy of street life. Most of the sociology classes he took in art school required some sort of photography task. He spent countless hours trying to capture structure, interactions and social behaviors through the photographs that he shot in the streets of Paris.

Mani is very passionate about music, drawing, painting and photography. In 1986, he won a spot in an art exhibition in Nailly, FR fifty miles outside Paris. Soon afterwards, he was commissioned to create a painting that would be reproduced as a stained glass for a local church. Traveling in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Morocco and Canada, Mani photographed places, moments and buildings wherever he visited. Later on he created many paintings recounting his travels.

His Interest in his origins took him back to Tunisia in 1993, where he landed his first solo exhibition. The show was a success from the stand point of the turnout. Shortly afterwards, the Tunis Contemporary Art Museum purchased a collage piece. Mani raised enough money from the exhibition to be able to travel to the U.S., specifically North Carolina, for an art show at “Steven’s Gallery” in 1994. At his first exhibition in the U.S., he showed several of his paintings and most of the photography he shot in Morocco.

In the US, Mani’s photography has changed course. His focus is more on the modeling industry, which he combines with digital art. This combination allows him to take advantage of many of his abilities. His work explores the complexity of human nature and the multi-layered aspect of it. He views modeling similar to sculpting and performance art. He sees the body as an extension of the mind, the expression of our innermost feelings and he tries to capture that on camera and then digitally remodels the work. His photography is inspired mostly by the great masters such as Dali, Malevich, Picasso and Kandinsky.

Mani is grateful to be able to show his art in several local galleries. He has been working on commission worldwide for the past 26 years.

Mani will be on display at Studio 180 Salon in downtown Cary beginning in May through June 2017.

Visit Website