Anuar Khalifi is playfully serious tackling critical issues in solo show

The Third Line is presenting Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi’s Remember the Future exhibition (Jan. 17 – Mar. 1); it is the third solo exhibition by the artist. Bringing together a new body of large-scale paintings and works on paper, the show deals with the complexities of contemporary life. The works move between reality and imagination, across different tenses, artistically time travelling, inviting viewers to partake in meaning-making with curiosity and the spirit of childlike wonder. Marking an evolution in Khalifi’s practice, the works feature intricate and carefully composed settings, expanding the pictorial field.

Shaped by Khalifi’s engagement with magical realism, art history and poetry, the works in Remember the Future, position painting as a space loosened from fixed boundaries; some paintings originate from scenes the artist has witnessed, while others are born internally. Rather than treating reality as something fixed or outside the self, Khalifi approaches it as mutable and participatory, formed through physical presence and imagination. Replete with recurring symbols such as chairs, vessels, and flora, the painterly surfaces invite readings, foregrounding intuition and attentiveness.

Remember the Future (2025), for example, depicts a man standing against a vibrant pink wall in a space that hovers between interior and exterior, holding a length of white shroud stretched gently between his hands. Framed by bold planes of colour against a checkered background, the figure appears caught in a moment that feels both staged and spontaneous. The scene unfolds in quiet strangeness, at once ceremonial and ordinary, inviting the viewer to partake of its openness. Works on paper introduce imaginary figures that emerge extempore, reinforcing Khalifi’s trust in intuition as integral to his process. Across the exhibition, he overcomes limitations tied to identity or geography. Instead, he spotlights universal concerns such as time, life, death, intimacy, spirituality, and the immediacy of lived experience.

Work titled Permanent Exile.

Painting becomes a site of narrative building, with fluidity and freedom being made manifest, and images feeling unmistakably contemporary. Anuar Khalifi (b. 1977, Lloret de Mar, Spain) is a self-taught artist, currently based between Barcelona and Tangier. Working primarily in painting, he creates richly detailed, vibrant compositions that move between reality and fiction, rewarding the keen eye with layers of meaning. Within the layers, he explores a wide range of themes such as identity, duality, diaspora, orientalism, colonialism, extremism, and the consumerist society. Mixing fact and fiction to confront stereotypes, his works are at times ironic and humorous, evoking childlike naivety, as he dismantles the canon of orientalism, for instance.

Khalifi highlights the misrepresentations observed by those living between more than one culture or place. He exposes how the warping of Eastern and Western iconography disrupts human comprehension of actuality. His blend of fictional characters posed against brand imagery, creates experiences that span across realities, bridging visuals of the past with that of a globalised contemporary culture. He spent a great deal of time as a child drawing, a pastime that informs his practice today, particularly in his colour palette and arrangement of characters. Typically autobiographical in nature, his figures include adolescents, young adults, and occasionally an older male, often depicted in absurd settings or mischievous acts. The bold use of colour reinforces the youthful, playful tone. However, Khalifi subverts popular culture to leave subtly sophisticated reminders that his work is layered with solid topical social discourse.

The Strangers (4), in acrylic on paper.

Focusing on the journey of the individual, he maps out the surroundings that his characters inhabit, settings that encourage discussions around spirituality and mortality. He leaves space inside the narratives to engage the viewer, creating a private intimacy that allows for freedom, authenticity, and joyfulness to rule unimpeded. Drawing from personal memory, art history and popular culture, his works combine carefully constructed settings with figures suspended in unexpected, unsettling situations. While visually apparently playful, the paintings are layered with serious social and philosophical inquiry, engaging closely with themes of perception, duality, spirituality, and current life. Khalifi's paintings demonstrate his understanding of both the stylistic elements and the socio-political essence of neo-impressionism.

He has exhibited internationally, including at Lisson Gallery, London, UK; Brunei Gallery SOAS, London, UK; Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates; The Third Line, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France; Galerie Shart, Casablanca, Morocco; Plom gallery, Barcelona, Spain; The Mothership, Barcelona, Spain; Bank Al-Maghrib, Rabat, Morocco; Yakin and Boaz Gallery, Casablanca, Morocco; Galeria Mitte Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Galerie Kandisha, Paris, France; Now, Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco; Mastermind (GVCC), Casablanca, Morocco; Artingis, Tangier, Morocco; and Les Insolites, Tangier, Morocco.

Anuar Khalifi makes a point.

Founded in 2005, The Third Line is a Dubai-based gallery that represents contemporary artists locally, regionally, and internationally. With 20 years of commitment to the arts, it is a pioneering platform for established talent and emerging voices from the region and its diaspora, with a programme that explores the diversity of practices in the region. In addition to its exhibitions, the gallery produces art publications in English and Arabic and hosts numerous non-profit events that add to the discourse on art, film, music and literature in the region. Represented artists include Abbas Akhavan, Ala Ebtekar, Amir H. Fallah, Anuar Khalifi, Bady Dalloul, Farah Al Qasimi, Farhad Moshiri, Fouad Elkoury, Hassan Hajjaj, Hayv Kahraman, Huda Lutfi, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Jordan Nassar, Kamran Samimi, Laleh Khorramian, Lamya Gargash, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Nima Nabavi, Pouran Jinchi, Rana Begum, Sahand Hesamiyan, Sara Naim, Sarah Awad, Shirin Aliabadi, Slavs and Tatars, Sophia Al-Maria, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Vian Sora, yasiin bey, and Youssef Nabil.