Yassine Alaoui Ismaili
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, also known as Yoriyas is a Casablanca-based photographer and performer.
He started playing chess at five years old, leading him to fall in love with mathematics. By the age of 16, the influence of Hip Hop culture paved a new path in his life, leading him to become a break-dancer. In 2013, while traveling the world as a competing professional dancer, a serious knee injury halted his dance career. This sparked a new artistic transformation: photography as a means of self-expression. The unique blend of his Arab-North-African heritage, strategy of chess, and his love for dance led him to one-of-a-kind methods of experimentation through photography.
Yoriyas’s work is often an intuitively-based observation of urban/public space, and a documenting daily life and change in Morocco and Africa. His images have been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic . He has received several awards, including the award Les Amis de l’Institut du Monde Arabe for Contemporary Arab Creation 2019 and The 7th Contemporary African Photography at Photo Basel 2018.
He has been exhibited across the world, including in the HERMÈS Foundation in Paris, 836m Gallery San Francisco, The History-Miami Museum and Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal and l'institut pour la photographie lille.
In 2020 he curated Sourtna, the inaugural exhibition of Morocco’s National Museum of Photography. During the Corona Pandemic, Yoriyas got selected by The New York Times as one of artists to follow and received the COVID-19 Emergency Fund from National Geographic.
In 2022 Yoriyas curated two Photography shows about Morocco at The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington during the Annual Meetings.
EXHIBITIONS
2022 Photography shows at The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the Annual Meetings, Washington, US
2022 Solo Show The Last Taxi at American Art Centre, Casablanca
2021 Carte Blanche at L’Institut pour La photographie, Lille
2021 More Than A Number at ffoto gallery, Wales
2021 Casablanca No the movie, Tropen Museum, Amsterdam
2021 Carte Blanche at la Condition Publique, Roubaix
2020 Afrika Im Blick der Fotografen at Voelklinger-huette Museum, Germany
2020 Then and Now, Photoville NewYork city, USA
2020 JustWatch at 836M Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2020 Through the lens of, at Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Holland
2020 La Vague Blanche at 38 Gallery Casablanca, Morocco
2020 Carte Blanche at Morocco National Photography Museum, Rabat, Morocco
2019 Moroccan Week at Aga Khan Museum, Toronto
2019 Koora at l’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2019 Moroccan portraits,AKAA 2019 | 193 Gallery, Paris, France
2019 Performance Dance/Photo at the International Biennial of Casablanca, Morocco
2019 Exhibition/ Performance at Fabrique Pola — Bordeaux, France
2018 Exhibition/Performance at Arabesque in Airoport Montpellier, France
2018 Exhibition/performance at Riad Yema,1-54 African Artfair, Marrakech, Morocco
2018 Exhibition/performance at Presence Photographie Montèlimar
2018 Moussem Cities Loading Casa, Brussels, Belgium
2017 Foundation d’entreprise Hermès, Paris, France
2017 History Miami Museum group exhibition Miami, USA
2017 The Arab Street, Gulf Photo Plus Festival, Dubai, UAE
2017 Exhibition/performance Institut Français, Casablanca, Morocco
2017 Exhibition/performance Institut Français, Essaouira, Morocco
2016 Serendipity Arts Festival Goa 2016 Panaji, India
2016 Ghaya Gallery sidi bou said Tunis
2016 Rupture CMOOA Gallery Marrakech
2016 Gutberg-nerger gallery Humburg Germany
2016 PhotoIreland festival Ireland,Dublin
2015 Performance LHKZ at Universal exposition Milan Italy
AWARDS and ART RESIDENCIES
2021 Art residence at Institut pour La photographie Lille
2020 The National Geographic COVID-19 Emergency Fund
2020 The New York Times, Five Artists to Follow on Instagram Now , New York City
2020 Nominated for Joop Swart Masterclass, Amsterdam
2019 Art residence at Cité internationale des arts Paris
2019 Prize of l’Institut du Monde Arabe for Contemporary Arab Creation, Paris
2018 The 7th Contemporary African Photography Prize, Basel
2017 Selected for New York Times Portfolio Review, New York City
2016 First prize in Les Nuits Photographique, Essaouira
2016 Finalist Lensculture Street Photography Awards, Amsterdam
2016 First prize in World Street Photography, Hamburg
COLLECTIONS
Royal Collection, Rabat
Hermès Foundation, Paris
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
Voelklinger-huette Museum, Völklingen
Morocco Museums Foundation, Rabat
l’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Private collections (Morocco, Japan, Usa, France, Portugal, Uk, Spain.)