Lalla Essaydi (artist)

Born in Marrakech, Morocco in 1956, Lalla Essaydi attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, where she pursued a curriculum in painting and continuing education from 1990 to 1994, receiving certificates in drawing and painting in 1994. She relocated to the United States soon thereafter, and received a BFA in 1999 from Tufts University with a focus on women and art. She continued her art education at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, receiving a diploma in photography and installation (1999), and an MFA in painting and photography (2003). Moroccan born, Lalla Essaydi did not become an artist until relocating from Saudi Arabia to the United States in 1996. She believes her work—autobiographical writings inscribed on women’s bodies and cloth and captured through photography—would not have been possible had she stayed in Morocco and Saudi Arabia. She says, “In a sense I am a Western artist, making art in a style I was unable to use in my home country…I want to combine all these elements in order to engage the whole problem of myself as other.” For more information: http://lallaessaydi.com.