Maya-Inès Touam – The Things That Remain

In her practice, the Franco-Algerian artist Maya-Inès Touam, born in 1988, explores the idea of heritage as a way of expressing her dual cultural identity. It was during her first stay in Algeria, after studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, that she began collecting fabrics, containers, and stones, which she combines with sculptures and antique jewelry. All of these objects now appear in her still-life works, whose compositions are inspired by Flemish art and by the painter Henri Matisse, such as Still Life with Pomegranates (1947), Pineapple and Anemones (1940), and Polynesia, the Sea (1946)…