KEYA
Keya (born 1974 in Bourgoin-Jallieu, France) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in memory, matter, and the emotional traces left by time. Of Algerian and European heritage and now based in Marrakech, Keya has spent a lifetime transforming personal adversity into poetic form — creating works that are as tactile as they are spiritual.
His practice is grounded in an elemental relationship with materials: rust, charcoal, wine, earth, wood, and pigment — each chosen for its symbolic charge and physical texture. From a young boy sketching with household objects to a peacekeeping soldier in war-torn Yugoslavia, Keya’s path has shaped a deeply introspective, sensorial approach to art-making.
A defining element of his work is the private alphabet he began developing in 2011 — born from a moment of profound transformation during his wife’s pregnancy, and shaped by his lifelong experience with dyslexia and late diagnosis as a highly gifted individual (HPI). This
alphabet became his way of reclaiming language, healing trauma, and forming a secret yet intimate dialogue with his son. It is now the signature of his work: a personal codex that travels across canvas, sculpture, and spatial installation.
Keya’s pieces do not seek to be deciphered — they are to be felt. They carry the presence of lived experience and reveal a quiet mastery of form and gesture. His recent exhibitions include solo presentations at Four Seasons Marrakech, Galerie Amani in Abidjan, and The Cool HeartGallery in Los Angeles, among others. His work resonates globally, while remaining deeply anchored in the soil, craft, and silence of North Africa.
Meems represents Keya because his art speaks to the very values we uphold: a commitment to truth, material integrity, and cross-cultural storytelling. His coded alphabet is not only a visual language — it is a form of resistance, tenderness, and transmission. Through Keya, we honor the unspoken histories embedded in craft, and the power of abstraction to carry legacy forward.
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