Baya Mahieddin's story is one that is imbued with the hopeful undulations of life - of joy in spite of loss and resolution in the face of instability. Introduced to the art world by her adoptive mother, Baya was a self-taught artist who remained true to her own aesthetic sensibilities. Baya was of Algerian descent, and her attachment to the light of Blida accompanied her throughout her life. Despite a rather tenuous political environment shrouded in a post-colonial vernacular, Baya was unwilling to succumb to post-colonial exile and therefore spent her lifetime in her hometown.

Baya refused to associate herself with mainstream Western art signifiers, and therefore rejected all forms of adherence...