Born in 1966 in Casablanca, Khalid El Bekay graduated from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan in 1990 and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Barcelona, engraving section. His first exhibition dates from 1995 in Barcelona. In 1997, he was finalist of the 30th Biennial of painting of Tarragona.
He lives and works in Barcelona and Casablanca.
In the artistic production of El Bekay, we find the cultural and geographical traditions associated with other Western or Mediterranean cultural references. The light of his paintings is reminiscent of his Mediterranean roots; it unfolds in shades of red, yellow or blue.
The artist uses the technique of gray or white paper collage on wood without using sharp instruments. He paints very simple elements, marrying East and West: coffee cup, tea glass, teapot, pear, apple ... Their arrangement is reduced to the essential, by juxtaposition of fragments, in an apparent sobriety. This collage technique based on the superposition of papers has given way to flat colors.
"My work is a mixture of cultures between Western and Eastern. My paintings are the materialization of my dialogue with the earth, this earth that has the same color but can give fruits of very different colors and forms. "