Latifa Medjdoub aka Laftmonk
Schilder & Textielkunstenaar | Frankrijk / VS
Latifa Medjdoub, aka Laftmonk (1973), is a French-Algerian multidisciplinary artist working across textile, painting, collage, installation, and participatory performance. At the centre of her work is an exploration of connection: how separate elements meet, influence and transform one another while retaining their individual identities. In her textile works, fibres, filaments, threads, and ropes intersect and intertwine, diverge and converge, into intricate structures that feel at once organic and highly constructed. Through these networks of tension, encounter, transformations, Medjdoub gives form to the often invisible and complex systems through which individuals, materials, and stories connect. As lines cross, knot, and release each other, unexpected forms emerge.
Photo Credit: Latifa Medjdoub
Portret
Born and raised in France in a family of Algerian descent, visual artist, designer and social art practitioner Latifa Medjdoub aka Laftmonk (1973) obtained her master in visual arts and textile from the École Supérieur des Arts appliqués et du Textile of Roubaix, France. Additionally, She later worked in textile and costume design at Stanford University in the United States, where she also pursued studies in sculpture. During an extended period of travel through Syria, Medjdoub researched the rich textile and artistic traditions of the region. She now works and lives between France and the United-States.
Throughout her practice, Medjdoub moves between textile sculpture, painting, photography and collage, allowing ideas to shift from one medium into another.
In her textile works, the exploration of complex social structures and relational systems take on a material form. Constructed in symmetry, with each side mirroring the other, the works are built from threads, ropes and fibres in varied colours, tightly interlaced around a frame. In her Entrelacs (interlacing) series, inspired by ancestral traditions of symmetrical and continuous ornament, lines converge, diverge and cross, creating dense points of connection within seemingly endless trajectories. Together, they form tight networks evoking forms of interdependence found through the natural world, roots, webs, tissues as well as broader structures of connection.
At once taut and fragile, these intricate webs evoke the invisible paths through which lives, identities and experiences intersect, separate and transform one another. Almost organically, shapes, figures and images seem to emerge from within the structure, appearing and dissolving according to the viewer’s gaze. Indeed, for Medjdoub, interlacing extends beyond ornamental motif, it becomes a principle of construction, where forms gradually emerge through gesture and technique.
Medjdoub’s exploration of interconnection also extends into participatory performances, where individuals are physically linked through threads and ropes. As participants pull, loosen and move within these shared structures, connection becomes something tangible and embodied. The shifting tension between bodies and materials turns the work into a collective experience, activating a sense of interdependence, exchange and deeper connection.
Laftmonk has exhibited her work internationally in renowned museums and galleries, amongst which the Museum of Art and Industry André-Diligent in France; Cheongju Art Center, Korea; De Cordova Museum, Massachusetts; Santa Fe Art institute, New Mexico; Blue Star Contemporary, Texas, and at The Old Mint, San Francisco CA. Her work can be found in private collections internationally including in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris.
Born and raised in France in a family of Algerian descent, visual artist, designer and social art practitioner Latifa Medjdoub aka Laftmonk (1973) obtained a master in visual arts and textile from the École Supérieur des Arts appliqués et du Textile of Roubaix, France. She later worked in textile and costume design at Stanford University in the United States, where she also pursued studies in sculpture. During an extended period of travel through Syria, Medjdoub researched the rich textile and artistic traditions of the region. She now works and lives between France and the United-States.
Throughout her practice, Medjdoub moves between textile sculpture, painting, photography and collage, allowing ideas to shift from one medium into another.
In her textile works, the exploration of complex social structures and relational systems take on a material form. Constructed in symmetry, with each side mirroring the other, the works are built from threads, ropes and fibres in varied colours, tightly interlaced around a frame. In her Entrelacs (interlacing) series, inspired by ancestral traditions of symmetrical and continuous ornament, lines converge, diverge and cross, creating dense points of connection within seemingly endless trajectories. Together, they form tight networks evoking forms of interdependence found through the natural world, roots, webs, tissues as well as broader structures of connection.
At once taut and fragile, these intricate webs evoke the invisible paths through which lives, identities and experiences intersect, separate and transform one another. Almost organically, shapes, figures and images seem to emerge from within the structure, appearing and dissolving according to the viewer’s gaze. Indeed, for Medjdoub, interlacing extends beyond ornamental motif, it becomes a principle of construction, where forms gradually emerge through gesture and technique.
Medjdoub’s exploration of interconnection also extends into participatory performances, where individuals are physically linked through threads and ropes. As participants pull, loosen and move within these shared structures, connection becomes something tangible and embodied. The shifting tension between bodies and materials turns the work into a collective experience, activating a sense of interdependence, exchange and deeper connection.
Laftmonk heeft haar werk internationaal tentoongesteld in gerenommeerde musea en galerieën, waaronder het Museum of Art and Industry André-Diligent in Frankrijk; Cheongju Art Center, Korea; De Cordova Museum, Massachusetts; Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico; Blue Star Contemporary, Texas, en in The Old Mint, San Francisco CA. Haar werk is te vinden in particuliere collecties wereldwijd, waaronder in Los Angeles, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Londen en Parijs.
Credentials
2027
- (Planned) - Révélations - International Biennale of Fine Craft and Creation, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2026
- Duo-Solo, OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands
2025
- Ateliers d’Art de France. Musée des Beaux-Arts Antoine Lécuyer, Saint-Quentin, France.
2022
- Base for a Red Vine Installation. NDSM Loods, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2021
- L’envers du décor: La Vigne Rouge. Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, France.
- Art Up Lille. Grand Palais, Lille, France.
2020
- CTRL+S. OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands.
2019
- ST-ART Strasbourg. International Art Fair via OpenArtExchange, Strasbourg, France.
- New World. OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands.
2018
- The Red Vine. Gallery 9th Metaspace, Bonn, Germany.
2017
- Glean 2017. Bison Building, Furthermore Gallery, Recology, Portland, OR.
2016
- The Roots. installation at the Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco, CA.
2015
- Echoes of Nature. Pacific Felt Factory, San Francisco, CA.
2015
- Sublimated Masks. Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco, CA.
- Here. Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA.
- Transmissions. Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX.
2014
- Window Screen. 432A, Presidio Park, San Francisco, CA.
- Beautiful Roots. Dennis Gallagher Arts Pavilion, San Francisco, CA.
- Material Matters. Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, IL.
2013
- The Fabric of the Silence. Performance Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
2012
- Art and the Human Form. Blue Door Art Center, Yonkers, NY.
2004
- Textile Art. DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA.
2003
- The World is Open. Cheongju Art Center Biennial, Cheongju, Korea.
- Manifestations III: Form and Function. Denise Bibro Gallery, New York, NY.
1995
- Inventaire Morceaux Choisis. Musée d’Art et d’Industrie André Diligent, Roubaix, France.
1994
- Fragments. Musée d’Art et d’Industrie André Diligent, Roubaix, France.
2026
- OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands.
2019
- Artists in Residence VI. Supported by OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands.
2017
- Glean, Artist in Residence. Supported by Recology, Metro, Cracked Pots, Portland, OR.
- Residency at the Museum of Performance and Design. Supported by the Fleishhacker Foundation and Grants for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.
- USAAF 2017 Threading Resilience. Supported by APICC, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.
2016
- The Roots: Engaging with a Social Sculpture. Lecture and social practice, Koret Auditorium, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA.
- Bay Area Emerging Museum Professionals: Therapeutics in Museums and the Arts. Lecture and social practice, Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco, CA.
2015
- Kala Art Institute, Sustainable Art Award and Residency. Berkeley, CA.
- Sublimated Masks. Lecture and performance, Museum of Performance and Design, San Francisco, CA.
- Residency & Social Practice. The International School of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
2014
- Visiting Artist. San Francisco University High School, San Francisco, CA.
2013
- Artist in Residence. Performance Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
2020
- CTRL+S. OpenArtExchange, Schiedam, The Netherlands.
2019
- ST-ART Strasbourg. International Art Fair via OpenArtExchange, Strasbourg, France.
- New World. OpenArtExchange Art Center, Schiedam, The Netherlands.