39×30cm

One of WYTCH’s favorite artists, Mustapha Asmah hails from the enchanted city of Essaouira, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. His work exists in parallel with the psychedelic and supernatural nature of Essaouira’s labyrinthine medina. Contained within medieval walls, the narrow streets and alleys fizz with magic - navigating a sea of faces, colours, cats and otherworldly creatures - supremely captured in Asmah’s paintings.

Since 1994, Asmah has run a second-hand and scrap metal shop on the outskirts of Essaouira. As a child, he was passionate about painting, but it was not until 1998 that he began to paint and sell his paintings among the salvaged objects. In 2001, he got in touch with the gallery owner Frédéric Damgaard and since then, driven by an irresistible need, he has started to paint every day, like "a madman". "Because I want to paint"; he says.

He begins by preparing his colours and his canvas, wood or hardboard. After careful consideration, he attacks the painting with which he feels as if he is in communication: his eyes half-closed, seemingly in a trance, he then creates works that he can only explain by this simple observation: “It is my intuition that guides me...”. This is how Asmah satisfies his need for creativity. His works have the violence and intensity of certain works of German expressionism: striking colours spread out in large flat areas, the heads are disproportionate, impressive faces look at the viewer with absent eyes that seem to call out to him as if to deliver a message.

If you are interested in seeing more of Asmah’s work, please get in touch here.