Meriem Bouderbala

Meriem Bouderbala (; born 1960) is a Tunisian plastic artist who lives and works between Tunis and Paris.

Early life and education Meriem Bouderbala was born in Tunis in 1960. She left Tunisia to enroll at the in 1980, graduating with a degree in engraving and painting in 1985. Then, in 1986, she studied in the engraving department of the Chelsea College of Arts in London.

Artistic work Bouderbala uses different creative methods to produce her work. She paints on various surfaces (canvas, paper, glass, and fabric), enriching her paints with materials like iron filings or sands, and she also works in ceramics, photography, and collage. With her series Flag Nymphéas and Awakened, she expressed her disillusionment with the Tunisian revolution.

In her words:My dual origins and my dual French-Tunisian culture have always influenced my work as a plastic artist. Both of them have inspired the gestures, the adjustments, the decisions that have led my works toward a "minority becoming."

Exhibitions Bouderbala has participated in more than 20 exhibitions, both across the Arab world and in France, including four solo shows in the 1980s and '90s.

In 2012, she served as curator of the Printemps des Arts fair in Tunis, which was attacked by religious extremists. The controversy that prompted the attack included one of Bouderbala's pieces, which a nearly nude woman with bearded men in the background. She and other artists spoke out when government officials defended the attackers, with Bouderbala saying, "We don't have to justify our art."

Solo exhibitions

1986: Galerie Lola Gassin, Nice, France 1988: Galerie Lola Gassin, Nice, France 1989: Galerie Lola Gassin, Nice, France 1993: Galerie Lola Gassin, Nice, France

Group exhibitions

1994: Autour de la Méditerranée - Vivien Isnard, Patrick Lanneau, Serge Plagnol, Meriem Bouderbala, Galerie Lola Gassin, Cannes, France 2013: Halim Al Karim, Meriem Bouderbala, Lucien Clergue et Françoise Huguier, Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris, France 2016: Yesterday is Tomorrow's Memory, Galerie El Marsa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 2017: E-Mois, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakesh, Morocco 2017: E-Mois - Autobiography of a Collection, Fondation Alliances, Casablanca, Morocco 2018: Un œil ouvert sur le monde, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France

Biennials

2008: Mediterranean Art Biennial, Tunis, Tunisia 2010: Cairo International Biennale, Giza, Egypt 2014: Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal

Art fairs

2013: Art Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 2015: Art Paris, Paris, France 2019: Art Paris, Paris, France