Nedjar’s dolls send us back to a dark secret, to the wise of what certain people still instist on calling the “primitives”. These exhumed beings, made of worned-out clothes and other heterogeneous materials found in everyday life of the artist are “loaded”, like magical objects, a kind of soul transducer. Likewise, his drawings are the trace of a passage, metaphors of the human condition.

Born in 1947, Michel Nedjar as a youth was nurtured in the realm of sowing machines, his father being a tailor. He was introduced by his grandmother at the flea market to save pieces of rubbish of the past. In 1969 he starts to travel. Back from a long stay in Mexico, he makes his first dolls in 1976 and starts to draw, as well as shooting his first experimental movie in super 8. Today he enjoys an international career, exhibiting in both Europe and the USA

Collective exhibitions (selection) :

1995
Art Brut et Compagnie. Halle St.Pierre, Paris
Driven to Create : The Anthony J. Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art. (touring exhibition) : Akron Art Museum
Tampa Museum of Art

1996
The Obsessive Eye. Koehnline Visual Arts Center, Des Plaines, Illinois
Outsider Art - An Exploration of Chicago Collections. Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois

1997
Made in France 1947-1997, 50 Ans de Création en France. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Art Brut-Collection de l'Aracine. (touring exhibition) : Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole
De l'Art Brut à la Création Franche : Collection P. Eternod et J.-D. Mermod, Lausanne.
Site de la Création Franche, Bègles
Art Brut-Collection de l'Aracine. (touring exhibition) :
Château de Villeneuve / Fondation Emile Hugues, Vence

1998
Magie blanche-Magie noire, Le Centre Georges Pompidou hors les murs.
Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Mantes-la-Jolie
Art Unsolved - The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Art Brut-Collection de l'Aracine. (touring exhibition) :
Musée de l'Objet, Blois
The Distant Insides - Collection de L'Art Brut. Ginza Art Space, Tokyo

1999
30 Outsiders. Galerie Hamer, Amsterdam
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore

2000
Outsider Art-collection Charlotte Zander. Bönnigheim, Germany
Collection de l'Aracine / Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole. Musée d'Art Mercian, Karuizawa, Japan
Collection P. Eternod et J.-D. Mermod, Lausanne. Malmö Konstmuseum & Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm
Art Without Precedent: 9 Artists from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore
Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2001
Pourquoi faites-vous cette tête-la? Galeries Poirel, Nancy
L'Enfant et les Sortilèges. ArtSénat 2001, Paris
8. Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach (Germany) 2001. Vor-Sicht Rück-Sicht Art Paris (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)
Eternity has no door of escape - Collection P. Eternod et J.-D. Mermod. Galleria Gottardo, Lugano, Switzerland

2002
Council of Europe, Strasbourg
FIAC - international contemporary art fair, Paris (Galerie Chobot, Vienna & Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)

2003
Traum Welt Pferd. Museum im Lagerhaus, St. Gallen, Switzerland
Au-Delà du Corps. Centre Culturel Jacques Prévert, Aixe-sur-Vienne (Limousin)
The Tail that Wags the Dog. Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
FIAC - international contemporary art fair, Paris (Galerie Chobot, Vienna & Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)

2004
Poupées. Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
ST'ART - Strasbourg contemporary art fair (Galerie du Fleuve - Roy Sfeir, Paris)
Insita 2004. Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

2005
Inflamed with Art - Dubuffet and Art Brut. Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany
Art Paris (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)
Guys 'n' Dolls. Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, England
Inflamed with Art - Dubuffet & Art Brut. Collection de L'Art Brut, Lausanne
In Another World. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Merci Monsieur Cordier. Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Selected Works from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Tate Britain, London
Art Brut : Origins and Interpretations, The Anthony J. Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art. Intuit, Chicago
FIAC - international contemporary art fair, Paris (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)
Inflamed with Art - Dubuffet & Art Brut. Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq
ST'ART - Strasbourg contemporary art fair (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)

2006
Pain. Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent, Belgium
Inner Worlds Outside. Fundacion la Caixa, Madrid & Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Parallel Visions II « Outsider » and « Insider » Art Today. Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Vienna international contemporary art fair (Galerie Chobot, Vienna)
Oltre la Ragione. Bergamo, Italy

2007
Intranquille amour, Galerie Polad-Hardouin, Paris
Guys ‘n’ Dolls. Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, England
Inflamed with Art - Dubuffet & Art Brut. Collection de L’Art Brut, Lausanne
In Another World. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Merci Monsieur Cordier. Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Selected Works from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection. Tate Britain, London
Art Brut : Origins and Interpretations, The Anthony J. Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art. Intuit, Chicago
FIAC – international contemporary art fair, Paris (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)
Inflamed with Art - Dubuffet & Art Brut. Musée d’Art Moderne de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d’Ascq
ST’ART - Strasbourg contemporary art fair (Galerie Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg)

Solo Shows (selection) :

1995
Galerie Charlotte, Munich
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris
Les Ongles en Deuil. (touring exhibition) :
Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim

1996
Les Ongles en Deuil. (touring exhibition) :
Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld
Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
De Stadshof-Museum voor Naïeve en Outsider Kunst, Zwolle, Holland
Kunstamt Wedding, Berlin
American Primitive Gallery, New York
Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago

1997
Galerie Heike Curtze, Vienna
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris
Judy A. Saslow Gallery, Chicago

1998
Galerie St. Etienne, New York

1999
Galerie Latal, Zürich
Alliance Française, Chicago
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

2000
Galerie Latal, Zürich
Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas
Galerie Jean-Pierre Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg

2001
Chairdâme. Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

2002
Poupées d'exil. Musée de Cahors Henri Martin
Judy A. Saslow Gallery, Chicago
Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas
Galerie Latal, Zürich
Galerie Chobot, Vienna

2004
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris
Judy A. Saslow Gallery, Chicago

2005
Poupées Pourim. Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris
Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, Texas
Galerie Latal, Zürich
Galerie Grand'Rue, Poitiers

2006
Galerie Artset, Limoges
Galerie Idées d'Artistes, Paris
Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

Museum Acquisitions

De Stichting Collectie De Stadshof, Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent, Belgium
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris
Collection de l'Aracine / Musée d'Art Moderne de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq
Centre Rhenan d'Art Contemporain, Altkirch, France
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne, France
Museum Charlotte Zander, Bönnigheim, Germany
The Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection / Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Collection de L'Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland
Milwaukee Art Museum, USA
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa, USA