Naïma Aouni (b. 1987) lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. She has been painting professionally since 2013. At the young age of 10 years old, Naïma discovered the enjoyment of drawing. Her passion for drawing only intensified a couple years later when she first came in contact with Michelangelo’s drawings.
She recalls the profound influence Michelangelo had on her young impressionable mind. Being pulled in by the gravitas of art, she made up her mind to pursue art more seriously.In her teens, she started scourging the library for art books. Particularly the 17th century piqued her interest.
Being born in Antwerp, having access to masterpieces of Rubens and Van Dyck, fueled her passion further on. It was however at the age of 23 years old, she finally picked up painting.
Naïma Aouni belongs to a group of young painters who, at the beginning of the 21st century is focusing on the continuation of representational art. The artist paints portraits of models of her own choosing, inspired by their individual features that conveys universal emotions. She is also a keen self-portrait artist, in which the reflective nature of the artist comes through.
Naïma Aouni’s visual microcosm is figurative and mostly serial. Her individual images are part of a narrative flow and substantive line of thought. She paints the human condition, the depths of the soul and the desolation of the lonely man or woman, which in turn brings out a melancholic atmosphere in her paintings. But just like the Dutch poet Gerrit Komrij, who speaks about melancholy, that sense of temporality and tenuous dream, which makes life so bearable, Naïma also balances this concept