Nja Mahdaoui

Art Exhibition :

Lives and works in Tunisia
Nja MAHDAOUI was born in Tunis in 1937.
He is a visual artist, an explorer of signs
  
Graduate of the Academy of Arts of Santa Andrea in Rome &

of the Ecole du Louvre: Department of oriental antiquities.

He has received a number of distinctions and national and international prizes. As the “Grand Prix des Arts et des Lettres Tunisia“.

- He takes part in group artistic exhibitions: Biennial exhibitions, museums and galleries. 
- Organizes exhibitions of individual and group work.
- Takes part regularly in seminars and colloquia at universities in Tunisia and abroad. 
- Has organized performances of “Total Art“ :

. Interactive communication between Arab and European artists, and artists from North America and Asia
on the theme : “Language and register in exchanges in the visual arts“.
. Theatre and dance on the theme: “Body-Writing“
 
These have taken place in Tunisia, France, Italy, Denmark, Japan, Cuba, Canada, Germany and Jordan.

Nja Mahdaoui is a member of the International Jury of the Arts Prize of UNESCO. 

He has been Guest of honour and Jury member of :

- The Sharjah International Arabic Calligraphy Biennial.  UAE. 2006.
- The International Arts Biennial of Tehran. Iran. 2006. 

He is cited in  

- The WHO’S WHO in Graphic Design (Zurich)

- Men of Achievement IBC Cambridge
- The BENEZIT (Dictionary of Painters, sculptors, designers and engravers of E. Benezit).
 
He has participated in the monumental decoration of the International Airports of Jeddah and Riyadh, and the ARAMCO head office at Dahran. Saudi Arabia. 

He has won the international competition for the external design of 4 aircrafts for the Gulf Air 50th Anniversary. The national airline of Bahrain, Oman and the UAE.
 
for further information see the detailed biographical catalogue :
www.nja-mahdaoui.com

Collections 

The British Museum – London, Great Britain

The National Museum of African Arts – Smithsonian Institution – Washington D.C., USA

The National Gallery of Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia

Bibliothèque Nationale – Paris, France

Museum of Modern Art - Tunis

Institut du Monde Arabe – Paris, France

The National Museum of Scotland, Great Britain

The Ohsaki  O’ Art Museum of Tokyo, Japan

The Modern Art Museum, Baghdad, Iraq

Beit Al Quran,  Manama – Bahrain

The Royal Museum of Contemporary Art, Amman, Jordan

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Baie Saint-Paul, Canada

HM The Late King Fahad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

“Dar Chraiet” Museum – Tozeur, Tunisia

Japan Foundation

Saudi Aramco

 

 Exhibitions 

“The Brush dances & the Ink Signs“ Hermitage Museum - St-Petersburg, Russia

Meem Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

 “The Brush dances & the Ink Signs“ - State Museum of Oriental Art – Moscow, Russia

Tehran Biennial (Guest of honour and Jury member) - Iran

Sharjah Arab Art Biennial (Guest of honour and Jury member) – United Arab Emirates

Word into Art – British Museum, London, Great Britain

Tunisian Great Prize of Arts & Letters - Tunisia

Artcraft Unesco Prize – Paris, France

International Jury member of the Unesco Arts Prize

Gulf Air 50th Anniversary

Signs, Traces and Calligraphy - Barbican Centre, London, Great Britain

Leighton House Museum – London, Great Britain

“Images d’Afrique” at the Barbican Center, London, Great Britain

“Images d’Afrique”  at the Kit Museum, Amsterdam, Holland

“Images d’Afrique”  at the Odense Museum, Denmark

“Arab Book Art” at the Bibliothèque Nationale – Paris, France

ART Basel - 1982

Honorary Medal from the King Ibn Saoud (Saudi Arabia) for his artworks

Gold Medal of the City of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Iwalewa Center – Bayreuth, Germany

Wilfredo Lam Modern Art Center – Cuba

The Ludwig Museum - Aachen, Germany

Poster for Amnesty International

Galerie Cobol – Copenhagen, Denmark

Duo with Wolfgang Heuwinkel at The Unesco – Paris, Berlin and the Gutenberg Museum in  Mayence, Germany

“La Hune” – Paris, France

Rochan Gallery – Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi

Dakar Biennial (Jury member)

USIA Invitation in the USA

Citibank “International Album”

The Arab Woman Court organised by “El Taller” in Beirut and Beijing

ATCE (Tunisian Foreign Co-operation Agency) Tunisia

Icograda Zanders Calendar (UN & Unesco) – New York & Paris

The International Peace Book (Chantal Bernard - Unesco) – France

Graphic Design Biennial of Brno, Czechoslovakia