“There is a Kazakh proverb that says: a foolish person arrives with noise, sweeping everything away in their path, while a wise person arrives quietly, carefully observing the world around them.”
Syrlybek Bekbota, the curator of the Kazakhstan Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale – the most important art event in the world – offers me this thought at the dawn of the exhibition’s opening, and it feels like both a manifesto and an omen.
While these tapestries were once diminished by academia and the avant-garde as mere “womanly craft,” contemporary artists from the Maghreb region in Northwest Africa are transforming the medium in ways that both honor and update longstanding traditions.
Many grew up around looms and recall their grandmothers’ hands on raw wool, their mothers’ crochet, or the cooperative workshops in their region. They attend to the labor, gestures, and knowledge that lived in the bodies of their women ancestors.
Finally, biennales, fairs, and museums around the world are starting to catch on.
Here are five of the most exciting contemporary artists inspired by Moroccan rugs and North African weaving.
Central Asia is increasingly visible on the contemporary art map, and few events carry more symbolic weight than the Venice Biennale, often described as the Olympics of the art world.
In recent years, Kazakhstan’s privately funded art scene and Uzbekistan’s state-backed art scene have often led the region’s international push. This year, Kyrgyzstan is is determined not to lag behind.
The country’s pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale marks its second dedicated national participation. Kyrgyzstan first appeared in this format in 2022 with Gates of Turan, a state-commissioned installation by Firouz FarmanFarmaian on the Venetian island of Giudecca that drew on nomadic heritage and local craft traditions.
At the center of the 2026 pavilion is Alexey Morosov, a Bishkek-born artist who has lived and worked in Italy for years. He chose the former church of Santa Caterina at Convitto Foscarini, in Venice’s Cannaregio district, as the setting for BELEK, the Kyrgyz word for “gift.”
Curated by art historian Geraldine Leardi, the exhibition reflects on water and Kyrgyzstan’s tradition of generosity. The works are in close dialogue with the space that hosts them.
There is an organic quality to the art scene in Tunis, where art grows out of the bustling, lively, chaotic energy that agitates the city’s streets and animates individuals trying to channel it into an art system.
That’s not an easy feat for a scene that can’t rely on any kind of government master plan, but solely on a handful of people who have set out on a mission to build something durable.
L’hebdo du Quotidien de l’Art has just published my article on Burmese artists exiled in France. After the coup d’état in Myanmar, most of the Burmese art scene relocated and reformed elsewhere, with some artists moving to France.
Between Marseille and Paris, these trajectories do not form a homogeneous network, but rather a constellation of practices and narratives, linked by the experience of exile.
In Sweden, the country’s artists, dealers, collectors and institutions have built a functioning ecosystem that has, by most measures, avoided the worst of the recent market turbulence.
I have written about it for Observer, reviewing Stockholm’s Market Art Fair, and exploring the Stockholm Art Week for Observer.
This year, Asia at the Venice Biennale explores themes ranging from postcolonialism to contemporary spirituality, thanks to artists from countries where the art scene is now well-established—such as China and Indonesia—as well as from emerging regions that are giving rise to new narratives.
Kaïs Dhifi’s sculptural pieces reflect a balance between control and spontaneity, embracing imperfection, chance, and the history embedded in materials. In this interview Dhifi talks about his latest concept, an inverted Mediterranean.
My interview with Kaïs Dhifi is on Markaz Review, as a feature artist for the Mediterreneans issue.
A convergence is underway between the worlds of art and design – at the heart of Salone Raritas, the new section of Salone del Mobile – centered on “collectible design,” which brings together historicized design and contemporary creation. It is a new market whose dynamics closely resemble those of the art world.
I interviewed three of the protagonists of this phenomenon for the design magazine IFDM.
Morocco’s art scene is diverse and growing, spanning independent spaces, commercial galleries and international fairs. While Marrakech positions itself as a global hub, Casablanca’s scene is closely tied to its history and political reality.
My report from Marrakech and Casa has just been published by the German magazine Qantara.
Latest article (in French) for Le Quotidien de l’Art about independent spaces in Rome. Sometimes I got to write about my turf as well! online and in the paper edition.
“Lorsqu’on évoque l’art contemporain en Italie, Milan et Turin s’imposent comme des évidences. Rome, elle, est souvent reléguée au second plan et perçue comme périphérique. Pourtant, loin des projecteurs institutionnels et de la hype, la capitale italienne cultive une vitalité singulière, une énergie nourrie par des liens humains forts, des solidarités de terrain et un rapport avec le territoire.”
Loft Gallery director has spent nearly two decades building one of the country’s most important contemporary art spaces, while quietly assembling a collection guided entirely by instinct and love.
Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al-Jazeera, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
