Artist: Kader Attia

Born in 1970, Attia’s first solo exhibition was in 1996 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then he has exhibited regularly in France, in institutions such as Palais de Tokyo and Lyon Contemporary Art Museum.

Attia has gained international recognition by participating in the Venice Biennale (2003), Art Basel Miami (2004) and the Lyon Biennale (2005). Attia’s most recent solo exhibitions have been at Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Centre de Création Contemporaine, Tours, Boston ICA, US, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK, le Magasin, Grenoble, France and Andréhn- Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden.

Kader Attia was nominated for the Price Marcel Duchamp in 2005 and awarded the Prize of the Cairo Biennale in 2008.

As an artist, he applies a duality of thought and hybridism to his artistic process, which he entirely puts down to his background, unafraid of tackling questions of immigration, globalisation and religion in a variety of disciplines.

Installation and multi-media are often the final products of his process, characterised by exceptional attention to detail.

The allegorical minimalism of his work is frequently unsettling owing to the discord between their external sensory appeal and controversial content.

Spending his childhood between Paris and Algeria has made Attia feel akin to both an Arab and Western way of thinking. He now lives and works between Algiers and Berlin.

Curator: Laurie Ann Farrell

Born in 1970 Laurie Ann Farrell is Curator and Executive Director of Exhibitions for the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), which operates galleries in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, and Lacoste, France.

From 1999 to 2007 Farrell was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum for African Art in New York. Highlight exhibitions there include Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art (2004), Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora (2003) and Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa (1999).

Her research for the past four years has focused on artistic dialogues and contemporary art practices in the Maghreb and the Middle East, in particular the impact of colonialism, immigration and cultural tradition on contemporary art.

In 2006 she organized the American participation at the inaugural Trienal de Luanda. Farrell has an MA in Art History and Theory from the University of Arizona. Recent exhibitions at SCAD include Afterglow (2007), Doug Aitken (2009), Cao Fei + Map Office (2009), Kader Attia (2008,2009), Yinka Shonibare, MBE (2008), Carrie Mae Weems (2008), Wangechi Mutu (2007), and Yeondoo Jung (2007).