Talhaoui says that if he wasn’t an artist he would be a psychologist or a philosopher or he’d move to the Brazilian rainforest. Artist Moley Talhaoui didn’t speak until he was four years old—a fact that worried his mother and the psychologists that she took him to, until they realized he was already including complex dimensions in his drawings: Talhaoui wasn’t struggling to communicate, he was just more interested in doing so with pictures than with words. “I’ve always been like that,” he says, shrugging. From introverted child to self-taught painter, Talhaoui continues to channel his inner emotional state into a creative outpouring. Born in Sweden to Moroccan parents, his connection to two dramatically different cultures plays out in work that is arresting in its use of graphic imagery yet always restrained. Large canvases are covered with jarring depictions of skeletons and distorted human forms; swathes of color are contained by expanses of heavy black. “There’s the totally free side from Morocco and the This story is from Kinfolk Issue Twenty-Nine Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 43 Space Invaders Room dividers from a Roman studio. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Peer Review: Edward Krasinski Curator Kasia Redzisz on the surreal wit of the avant-garde artist. Arts & Culture Films Music Issue 42 Peer Review Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat pays homage to the iconic Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum. Arts & Culture Issue 41 An Artist in Tunis Dora Dalila Cheffi is building her reputation, and her home, in the Tunisian capital. Arts & Culture Issue 41 Peer Review Curator Alya Al-Mulla shares the legacy of Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine. Arts & Culture Issue 41 CULT ROOMS Inside Alexander Calder’s studio, where chaos and kinetic art found a harmonious balance.
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