Hocine Ziani

Hocine Ziani (born in Sidi Daoud on 3 May 1953) is an Algerian painter and artist in plastic arts.
Early years.
Ziani was born in 1953 in a Kabyle family living in the countryside of lower Kabylia near Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif and not far from the course of Oued Sebaou in the current Boumerdès Province. He then spent his childhood in cultural isolation in the first years which coincided with the start of the Algerian revolution.
In 1964, two years after the independence of his country, he enrolled in the primary school of Sidi Daoud at the age of 11 and devoted himself to drawing and art as a self-taught. He joined his internship studies in an accounting college in the nearby town of Bordj Menaïel in 1969, then moved to Algiers in 1973 to continue his studies and obtain an accountant position in a national company.
From November 1974 to February 1977, he performed his military service in the Algerian desert within the Algerian Army, and on this occasion, he discovered the Sahara, in particular the Hoggar and the culture of the Tuaregs. As soon as he returned to civilian life, where he found his professional activity in accounting in 1978 he dropped the profession for art.
Career.
Algeria.
In 1979, he organized his first individual exhibition in an Algiers gallery, and then joined other artists to found the group of 35 which included M'hamed Issiakhem, Mohamed Temam, Mohammed Khadda, Denis Martinez, Ismaïl Samsom, Choukri Mesli, Ali Ali-Khodja, Hellal Zoubir, Ali Silem, Moussa Bourdine, Mohamed Louaïl, Ali Kerbouche and Tahar Ouamane.
In 1983, the Algerian government, under the chairmanship of Chadli Bendjedid, called on all national visual artists to found a museum dedicated to the history of the country. Ziani then contributed to this project through his works which are generally large format, and which will later enrich the collections of government or presidential institutions.
After a decade of production drawn from the historical theme, Ziani gradually turned away from specialization became interested in the theme of natural spaces, people and fantasies. He then favors free spaces treated in the blur, to give depth to his compositions, and this unlike historical canvases which are very crowded.
The themes of Ziani's paintings started to diversify, and in the spring of 1989, his wish to experiment with other techniques led him to learn lithography when he discovered an old press in one of the workshops of Villa Abd-el-Tif. With the help of his colleague Rachid Djemaï, he put the lithographic machine back into working order, andwith his friend Salah Hioun, painter and engraver, made his first printing tests.
Abroad.
In 1992, he left for Paris when Salafist terrorism in Algeria set the country ablaze, where he met the art dealer Daniel Lasnon, running an art gallery. They started collaborating and in 1933 Lasnon organized for Ziani individual and collective exhibitions in Paris, Brussels and in several large cities of France. After his first Parisian exhibition in 1993, Ziani left Algiers and settled in Paris, then in September 1994 he moved to Strasbourg.
In 1997, Ziani joined the Opera Gallery run by businessman and art dealer Gilles Dyan, who presented his works internationally. In this time he won several artistic prizes, including the Prix de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 2003, he started collaboration with art dealer Victor Perahia who offered him the services of his gallery permanently exhibiting works by Salvador Dalí, Arman, Georges Braque, Louis Toffoli, Claude Weisbuch and others.
In 2010, Ziani along with Layachi Hamidouche, Tahar Ouamane, Rachid Djemaï and Noureddine Zekara represented Algeria at the international painting exhibition organized in South Africa by FIFA. He was responsible for training the group of five artists representing his native country.
In March and April 2013, the city of Chaumont organized a retrospective of his painting of various genres and subjects including the history of Algeria, Venice, still lifes and portraits or horses.
The city of Luxeuil-les-Bains asked Ziani in 2018 for his orientalist works, of which ten of his paintings joined those of Paul Élie Dubois at the Tour des Échevins museum to constitute an exhibition entitled ”Orientalism, crossed views between Paul-Elie Dubois and Hocine Ziani” that lasted from April till October 2019.
Works.
Ziani produced paintings in which he used a rich plastic vocabulary, where realism, hyperrealism, impressionism and semi-abstraction interact. Through a game of contrast between foreground and background, it's the burst of light that particularly characterizes his works.
In his works, he explores all the games of shadows and reflections, of contrasts and gradients. As a figurative painter, he creates paintings from the real world while drawing his artistic effects from the resources of the imagination.
Many of his works belong to collections of governmental and presidential institutions in Algeria, France, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, the royal family of Saudi Arabia, and are also present in private collections throughout the world.
Several of his painted works have been the subject of official acquisitions by several institutions, such as The National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, The Central Army Museum, Algiers, The Ministry of Culture, Algiers, The People's National Assembly, Algiers, The Artéum Contemporary Art Museum, Châteauneuf-le-Rouge (Aix-en-Provence), The City Museum of Schwarzach, Germany.
Main exhibitions.
Several galleries and exhibitions presented Ziani's works: