MUST SEE ART EXHIBITIONS – SPRING 2026
Many of the exhibitions launched to coincide with the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair are still on view in Marrakech. Here’s our rundown of the must-sees this Spring 2026.
Red Burn by Salma Chaddadi, MCC Gallery, until March 30
Born in Casablanca and trained in Paris, Chaddadi’s work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou and Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In her new series of stunning portraits, Cheddadi examines masculinity in a vulnerable and tender way. Her canvases might be large but they also convey an immediate sense of intimacy. And in rejecting ideas around traditional masculinity, Chaddadi imbues her work with sensuality and softness. The results are captivating.
In Between Blues, curated by Roger Karera, DaDa, until March 30
Move between floors of this former bus station turned gallery and eating space to discover work by a collection of 20 artists from Africa and its diaspora. Together, they explore the history and symbolism of the colour blue, the interplay between earth, sky and water, as well as memory, matter and movement. This richly layered exhibition features everything from sculpture and installation to photography, painting and textile.
The Inner Garden by Rita Alaoui, El Fenn, until June 30
Born in Rabat and raised in Casablanca, Alaoui moved to Paris and then New York to study at the Parsons School of Design. The Inner Garden interweaves terrestrial and aquatic gardens in a series of stunning paintings featuring plants and flora. To backdrop the exhibition, Alaoui has covered the walls of El Fenn’s entrance corridors with large-scale murals, the spaces connected by our palm-filled central courtyard. The result is an immersive experience as the viewer moves between real and imagined gardens.
Holding Space by Rachid Bouhamidi, Galerie Siniya28, until March 8
Born in the US to a Moroccan father and French mother, Bouhamidi grew up visiting and working at the family restaurant Dar Maghreb in Los Angeles. This version of Morocco, recreated on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, was all Bouhamidi knew of Morocco until his first visit aged 19. In Holding Space, he creates a dreamlike landscape where different geographies overlap, narratives of cultural memory and familial heritage are explored. Jeff Koehler, celebrated author of Matisse in Morocco, saw his work and felt ‘overwhelmed by the energy and exuberance’.
Sarabande by Yasmina Alaoui, Comptoir des Mines, until 28 March
Yasmina Alaoui is a French-Moroccan multidisciplinary artist who was born in New York in 1977 and now splits her time between New York and Marrakech. Working across a range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, design, filmmaking and music composition, her new exhibition builds on previous work which questioned representations of femininity in Morocco. In Sarabande, Alaoui’s paintings are filled with nebulous figures as she subverts the traditional trope of the direct gaze to show the female body as an active presence that resists objectification.
