Gabi Jiménez is a French Roma painter. His art explores the memory and tragedy of the Roma people in France during and after World War II, and the discrimination, violence, hatred and expulsion they face(d). Through the use of bright colours and drawings with traces surrounded by black, Jimenez challenges the stereotypes around traveller culture and aims to draw attention to their current situation in society.
He exhibits widely across France and Europe, representing France in the 1st Roma pavilion at the Venice Biennale international art exhibition in 2007. In 2013, following his solo exhibition at DIHAL (Interministerial Delegation for Housing and Access to Housing) in Paris, the French state acquired his two Le Grand Paris canvases. Jimenez received the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Painting and Visual Arts prize in 2014 in recognition of his militant artistic work. In 2014, the president of the European Court of Human Rights acquired one of his works. His piece Caravan Under Two Cypresses was exhibited in the 2016 European Capital of Culture, San Sebastian, Spain, as part of the Tratado de Paz exhibition, which featured more than 300 works by artists such as Goya, Rubens, Murillo, Picasso, Ribera and Sophie Ristelhueber.
www.gabijimenez.fr
Main Exhibitions, Performances and Workshops
2007
FNASAT, Paris / 2007 • Venice Biennale 2007
2010
Mémoire de Gitan – Cergy, France
Balkan Trafik/Roma Touch – Brussels, Belgium
Stopping Place I &III – Galerie Kai Dikhas, Berlin, Germany
Une Mémoire Française – Paris, France
2011
La Villette/ La Grande Halle – Paris, France
Vous avez dit Roms? – Brussels, Belgium
Voleur de Poules – Galerie Taoki, Marines, France
Gitans Vos Papiers! – Lyon/Cergy/Eragny, France
Festival des Arts Singuliers – Banne, France
Premier Congrès International d’art Romani – Caceres, Spain
Latcho Dives Gadjé – Pau, France
2013
En passant par la Bohème – document vidéo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Grand Public – France 2
2014
Roma in der Kunst – Cologne, Germany
Romale! – Galerie Akademie, Graz, Austria
Safe European Home? – Berlin
Have a look into my life – Strasbourg
Prix de Peinture et Arts Plastiques – Ministère de la culture Espagnole, Madrid
European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg
Mais où sont passés les gitans? – Délégation Interministérielle/Premier Ministre, Paris
Représentation Permanente auprès du Conseil de l’Europe – Strasbourg
2015
Journée internationale des Tsiganes – Mairie de Paris
Porque somos Gitanos – La Casa Musical/Setmana de la Rumba Catalana, Girone/Perpignan
2016
Welcome en Gitani – Cergy
Tratado de Paz – San Sebastian, Spain
Akathé te beshen/J’y suis, j’y reste! – Berlin, Kleinsassen, Paris, Madrid
Dans le regard de l’autre – Cergy
2017
Montmagny, terre des arts – Young Audience Award, Montmagny, Paris
Les Affamés du Cabaret – Cergy
KHAMORO2017 World Roma Festival – group exhibition, Prague
Inauguration School Gabi Jimenez – Avignon
Source: the artist