“Masquerading is both character play and self-display”
There is something of jelly in this world. Not as motif alone, but as a translucent sealing. You can still see what is inside, but it is held at a slight remove, protected by a thin, glistening coating. Cheffi’s paintings propose instead a kind of radical reimagining as an ode to the ways women have been represented throughout history. The masquerade here does not read as spectacle in the classical sense either. Because the theatricality is strangely flat, almost deadpan. So, masquerade here becomes less about pretending to be something else and more about being too much of something to resolve into a suitable identity.
Born 1990. Helsinki, Finland
Lives and works between Helsinki, Finland and Tunis, Tunisia
Dora Dalila Cheffi’s work encompasses painting, video and installation.
Initially trained in art education, in which she obtained a BA from Aalto University School of Art, Design, and Architecture, where she also studied sculpture and painting, her practice developed to encompass a practice that centres on a highly personal approach to painting and video. Much of Cheffi’s work centres around observations and immediate experience, which are translated into works characterised by vivid colours and forms.
Her artwork has been part of group shows with Nuoret 2023, MACAAL – Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Villa Medici, Talan L’Expo, Subliminal Projects, Selma Feriani Gallery, Institut finlandais, and shown online with Other Space by Andersen’s Contemporary and Taymour Grahne Projects.
Her most recent body of work, titled Paper Thorn and A Prickly Leaf, consisted of a video piece and a series of paintings. The works were partly produced during her residency at the Serlachius Residency in Finland and were first exhibited at Forum Box and Porvoo Art Hall in Finland in 2025. In 2026, she will exhibit at Selma Feriani Gallery in Tunis and at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. She will also take part in an exhibition curated by the contemporary art museum Kiasma for Oulu, European Capital of Culture 2026.
About the curator
Racha Khemiri is an emerging curator and researcher whose work explores questions of history, representation, and critical memory. She holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in English Language, Literature, and Civilization from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Tunis, where her research examined British wartime visual culture, focusing on women artists and the politics of representation through a feminist lens. With a background in English and Cultural Studies, her practice is rooted in research and shaped by feminist and critical theories, often drawing from literature, philosophy, and archival inquiry. She is currently an Associate Curator at Selma Feriani Gallery, where she also leads L’Atelier by Selma Feriani, the gallery’s residency program.
