:: Yahya Group | About::

The Yahya Group, based in Marrakech, is a luxury design house founded by the self-taught artist Yahya.

What began as a small atelier has evolved into an internationally recognised creative house comprising a gallery, design office and workshop, whose work has helped redefine the relationship between traditional Moroccan craftsmanship and contemporary global design. Guided by a fascination with light, material, texture and form, the Group creates collections of lighting, furniture and accessories alongside artworks, sculptures and bespoke site-specific commissions. Characterised by a refined luxury that is both discreet and timeless, the work combines artisanal savoir-faire with technical mastery, moving freely between art, design and architecture to transcend convention and resist categorisation.

Entirely handmade, every piece is shaped with an obsessive attention to detail.

From the most intricate accessory to the monumental, site-specific installation, the work is recognised for a subtle yet sophisticated simplicity and purity. It does not merely occupy a space; it transforms it, turning rooms into quiet experiences of light, shadow and texture. A jewelled object and an architectural intervention are approached with the same exacting care and it is this refusal to separate the small from the monumental, the decorative from the structural, that gives the work its distinctive character.

Light occupies a central role within the artistic language that underpins much of the work.

Treated as a material in its own right, light is sculpted, concealed and revealed in many ways. It may be projected through intricate metalwork to create patterns of light and shadow, used to backlight forms and reveal hidden layers of detail, or employed more subtly to enhance atmosphere, emphasise texture and bring depth to a space. Wherever possible, the source itself disappears, allowing light to be felt rather than seen and experienced as an integral part of the work rather than a separate element. More than a functional necessity, light becomes a creative medium through which objects, artworks and architectural spaces are experienced, understood and transformed.

A fusion of cultures, nationalities and faiths shaped both the artist and his creative vision.

Born in London in 1972 to a multicultural family, Yahya followed an unconventional path: accepted to study philosophy, he chose instead to become an events organiser and later a martial arts instructor. With no formal artistic training, and having been expelled from his art class at school, it was a journey to Morocco that changed everything. There, through a fascination with light and the ancient craft of metalworking, an entirely unknown and unexpected creative side to his nature was revealed. Free of inherited rules and fixed ways of seeing, that absence of training became a freedom in itself, opening the work to invention rather than convention. The result is work of contrasting yet complementary influences, a reflection of his own multifaceted background.

A small atelier built to supply the import trade quietly became a laboratory of design and invention.

Yahya began by importing traditional Moroccan handicrafts to the UK before relocating to Morocco to set up a workshop there. When the orders dried up, the craftsmen encouraged him to create his own original designs. Feeling an impostor with no right to this world of creativity and design, he did so without ambition or belief in the work, intending only to keep the workshop occupied until he closed it down and returned to the UK. Yet, inadvertently, these first collections caught the attention of a major American department store, whose orders financed the opening of a first gallery. Opening in 2005 with no publicity and not even a sign on the door, it sold out within six weeks through word of mouth alone, and collectors soon began flying into Marrakech from around the world to commission works of their own.

Today the Yahya atelier brings together more than 250 master craftsmen, supported by engineers, draughtsmen and designers.

Part workshop, part laboratory, the atelier is a place where traditional craftsmanship and technical innovation meet. Working entirely in-house, they collaborate closely to transform ideas into physical reality, often pushing materials and techniques beyond their conventional limits. Every stage remains under the atelier’s supervision ,from design and development through to fabrication, assembly, electrification, finishing and quality control, ensuring that nothing is lost between imagination and execution. For the most complex works, dedicated installation teams travel internationally to ensure each piece is placed exactly as intended.

The Yahya Group is able to engage with projects in many different ways, adapting to the needs of each client and commission.

Some clients are drawn to existing collections, others seek adaptations of established designs, while many commission entirely bespoke works created for a specific site or context. The Group may become involved from the earliest conceptual stages of a project, or be invited later to develop and realise a particular element. This freedom to move between collections, collaborations and one-off creations allows each project to be approached on its own terms, however singular its creative, architectural or technical demands.

Internationally, the Group is sought after by a discerning clientele that values originality, authenticity and exclusivity.

Its clients include private collectors, palaces, luxury hotels, private residences and institutions, each seeking work that unites artistic vision with technical mastery. Commissions range from the Royal Mansour and La Mamounia in Marrakech to Villa Treville in Positano, The Cliff in Barbados and the Mayajah restaurant in Monaco, as well as Passalacqua on Lake Como, widely regarded as one of the world’s finest boutique hotels. Yahya’s work also features aboard some of the world’s most celebrated megayachts, among them Syzygy 818, winner of the Monaco Yacht Show award in 2019.

Yahya’s work has been exhibited internationally and gathered into important private and institutional collections.

Among the most significant exhibitions was Invisible Light, a celebrated collaboration with Mehdi Qotbi, a body of monumental sculptures inspired by his abstract calligraphic language and reinterpreted through form, light and rhythm. First presented at the Zaha Hadid Pavilion of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, it was later exhibited at the Royal Mansour in Marrakech. Beyond this and other exhibitions, a wider body of work, ranging from calligraphic and light-based pieces to complex parametric and sculptural forms, has entered distinguished collections around the world, reflecting the breadth and diversity of Yahya’s artistic practice.

At its heart, the Yahya Group is driven by a belief that beauty should never be limited by category, scale or convention.

Whether expressed through a small object, a work of art, a piece of furniture, a lighting collection or a monumental architectural commission, every creation is approached with the same care, curiosity and commitment to excellence. Some works demand extraordinary technical innovation; others seek a quiet simplicity in which complexity disappears entirely. Together they form a singular creative universe where art, design, craftsmanship and architecture exist not as separate disciplines, but as expressions of a single creative vision. It is this, a world in which nothing is ordinary, and where every creation, however simple or ambitious, is treated with equal importance, that sets the Yahya Group apart.