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Artists draw on the rich variety of forms offered by their cultural traditions. Driss Ouadahi, who hails from Casablanca, and Susan Hefuna, who has Egyptian roots, both began studying at German art academies in the 1980s. Initially, their work was primarily viewed in the West within the context of Minimalism and Colour Field painting. In fact, however, their formal approaches can be traced back to the ways of life and artistic expression that dominate the cultural context of their countries of origin. Ouadahi’s paintings deal with the high-rise estates of European and North African cities. Hefuna explores the artfully turned wooden latticework (mashrabiya) that separates exterior and interior spaces in traditional Egyptian architecture.
Order, system and structure in the work of Toulu Hassani, who was born in Iran, can be linked just as much to Western minimalist or conceptual painting as to non-figurative Oriental ornamentation. For her, ornament is not primarily a visual phenomenon, but a question of method. It is about capturing the world in lines and patterns.