b. 1983, Tunis, Tunisia
Aymen Mbarki is a self-taught visual artist working on paper and video mediums. As a child, he drew regularly. At the age of 5, he came across small posters; a printed copy of Saturn Devouring His Son by the Spanish painter and engraver Goya was the shift: this meeting strongly and radically marked Mbarki and influenced his vision of the world. At 15 he was haunted by the idea of continuing his journey by himself by feeding his curiosity and adopting a personal approach to self-learning. At the time, he spent most of his time in the library and at the museum of Bardo and Carthage.
Mbarki's work depicts scenes and creatures that hover between fantasy and reality; the black line is a unifying element of his work. Mbarki’s minimal approach and distinctive technique take impetus from poetry, literature, Greek mythology, and theatrical tragedy.
Mbarki completed his residency at L’Atelier Selma Feriani, accompanied by curator Salma Kossemtini, in January 2023 and has since continued developing his practice. His first exhibition took place in 2019 at the National Library of Tunis, since then he has taken part in several group exhibitions.