The Hamid Khellafi Gallery is delighted to present two major works by Dalila Dalléas Bouzar at the AKAA – Also Known As Africa 2025 art fair in Paris.
As an Algerian artist and woman, Dalila Dalléas Bouzar revisits the past through a body of work imbued with the body and memory. Her works explore the representation, vulnerability and power of the feminine, caught in a tension between heritage and freedom. Her painting, both symbolic and sensual, draws on Delacroix, mythology and the light of Algeria to create a unique pictorial language — where the female gaze reclaims its rightful place.
Dalila Dalléas Bouzar seeks to create new symbols capable of reshaping traditional images. Through painting, she revisits the past by integrating contemporary motifs. In one of her major works, the original composition is reinterpreted: while the figures transform, their gestures remain. The canvas is densely painted, rich in layered details. the perspective is clearly defined. light flows through the pictural narrative, creating depth. a large window opens out onto a dark sky. In contrast to delacroix’s closed, smoky atmosphere, the scene here extends outwards. The orientalist gaze is subverted and transcended. almost devoid of a background, another painting depicts four figures captured in a moment of suspended intimacy. all that remains is delacroix’s emblematic drapery, enveloping the scene in a floating, dreamlike atmosphere. Femininity appears intense, ambiguous and unsettling.
AKAA – Also Known As Africa, Carreau du Temple, Paris
24–26 October 2025
Galerie Hamid Khellafi — Artist of the Day: Dalila Dalléas Bouzar
