Aly Ben Salem was a modern artist who described painting as a liberatory act of love. While undated, Ben Salem’s painting Femme au Paon reflects the vivacity, whimsicality, and cultural symbolism characterising his oeuvre. This image portrays a youthful female figure seated in a paradisiacal garden teeming with life. The woman’s tattooed forehead, hennaed hands, embroidered neckline, and jewellery meld with an environment of atmospheric and vegetal shapes, decorated plumes, and auspicious creatures. Ben Salem’s iconography, flat colour planes, and spatial imagining connect the work to the Islamic painting traditions he revered. His undulating lines and palette of pastel pinks, blues, greens, and oranges animate the composition with a joyful vitality reflective of his wider practice. The work’s imaginary, allegorical qualities present the artist’s philosophical journey into life and creative power in the face of colonisation and historical erasure. Believing that an artist should bring joy and avert destruction, Ben Salem painted to instil serenity, mental freedom, and love in his viewers. This is the first time the work of Aly Ben Salem is presented at Biennale Arte. —Jessica Gerschultz
