The 193 Gallery is showcasing seven artists at Paris Photo 2026, held at the Grand Palais from November 12 to 15, to challenge traditional photographic boundaries.
The exhibit, located at stand C11, features creators from the Global South who integrate sculpture, textiles, embroidery, and assembly into their work to explore themes of cultural identity, memory, and representation, according to Il Giornale dell’Arte.
The gallery, founded in 2018 with locations in Paris, Venice, and Saint-Tropez, focuses on international artistic scenes, particularly from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The selected artists—April Bey, Gaëlle Choisne, Joana Choumali, Hassan Hajjaj, Shourouk Rhaiem, Thandiwe Muriu, and Lorenzo Vitturi—each employ distinct methods to expand the photographic medium.
Hassan Hajjaj, a Moroccan-born artist raised in London, focuses his portraiture on the reinterpretation of popular culture. His compositions feature saturated colors, with subjects wearing clothing he designed and posing against backdrops of North African textiles.
His frames, often constructed from consumer goods and commercial packaging, link the Pop Art aesthetic with Moroccan visual traditions. In his 2017 work MACAAL Crew, the frame is crafted from poplar wood and customized Harira cans. Born in Larache in 1961, Hajjaj incorporates references to contemporary consumption and material culture directly into his portrait compositions.
Joana Choumali utilizes manual intervention to alter her photographs, applying thread and texture directly onto digital prints. In her 2026 piece Time to Blossom, embroidery is used to modify the continuity of the image, adding a material dimension to the work. Choumali, who was the first African artist to receive the Prix Pictet in 2019, centers her practice on personal experience and memory.
Thandiwe Muriu, based in Nairobi, investigates stereotypes regarding the representation of African women through her Camo series. By utilizing vibrant Ankara and Kanga fabrics for both clothing and backgrounds, Muriu creates geometric patterns that obscure the contours of her subjects. Meanwhile, April Bey explores a personal mythology through her project Atlantica, which utilizes a science-fiction framework to reflect the experiences of Black culture.
✦ Paris Photo 2026 ✦ How does an image carry memory, from photography to digital art? Art on Tezos partners with @bygrida at @ParisPhotoFair for "Memory Matter Media", in celebration of 140 years of diplomatic relations between Korea and France. Grand Palais, 12-15 November… pic.twitter.com/lzQH1IvI4H
Lorenzo Vitturi Examines Trade Through Urban Markets
Among the artists featured is Lorenzo Vitturi, whose work examines the circulation of goods and informal economies as catalysts for social and cultural transformation. In his series Dalston Anatomy and Money Must Be Made, Vitturi documents the markets of Ridley Road in London and Balogun in Lagos, respectively, to observe how urban environments evolve through trade.
