Najia Mehadji was born in 1950 in Paris, France.
A major figure in the Moroccan contemporary art scene, Najia Mehadji has also been widely recognised in France since the 1980s, with several museum exhibitions and retrospectives, notably at the Musée d’art moderne de Céret (2018), the Musée de Gajac (2019) and the Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne (2025).
Nourished by her dual French and Moroccan culture, the artist has developed over several decades a body of work grounded in the dialogue between gesture, body and sign. Early marked by avant-garde theatre and corporeal expression, she developed a singular approach to painting in which line becomes movement and space.
Najia Mehadji’s work spans several major periods, from imprint paintings influenced by contemporary music to large monochrome drawings on linen canvas, before evolving towards a practice centred on gesture and inspired by Eastern calligraphy and dance. Through continuous and dynamic lines, she has developed a personal visual language at the intersection of drawing, painting and performance.
Alongside this work, Najia Mehadji has produced engaged works addressing the violence of war, particularly against women, as well as the death penalty.
Her works are held in numerous public and private collections, including those of the Institut du monde arabe (France), the Fonds national d’art contemporain (France), the Centre Pompidou – Musée national d’art moderne (France), the Musée d’art moderne de Céret (France), the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Jordan), the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (Morocco) and the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Morocco).
Najia Mehadji lives and works between Paris and Lamssasa, near Essaouira.