Hassan Hajjaj Brings His Vibrant World to Sotheby's with My London Rockstars, Ends to Estates

There are few artists whose work is instantly recognisable from across a room quite like Hassan Hajjaj. Defined by bold colour, layered pattern and an unmistakable visual language that sits somewhere between fashion editorial, street photography and pop art, the Moroccan-British artist has spent decades celebrating the richness of multicultural identity through his lens.

This summer, that world arrives at Sotheby's London with Hassan Hajjaj: My London Rockstars, Ends to Estates, a selling exhibition presented in partnership with Vigo Gallery, running from 13 July to 7 August.

Alongside the exhibition, Hajjaj is also taking over Sotheby's Story Café on New Bond Street, transforming the space in his signature style inspired by the vibrant cafés and tea salons he has created in Marrakech and Paris.

The exhibition marks the latest chapter of Hajjaj's long-running My Rockstars series, an ongoing body of work he began in the early 2000s documenting the people who make up his creative universe. Rather than focusing solely on celebrity, Hajjaj's portraits celebrate the communities, friendships and cultural exchanges that have shaped his own artistic journey. As he puts it: "I am so proud to introduce this new creative energy in London, which mirrors the spirit and excitement of my early days in the city."

At the heart of Ends to Estates is a new generation of London's cultural protagonists. The exhibition brings together portraits of artists, musicians and designers who have helped redefine the city's contemporary creative landscape, including Central Cee, Joy Crookes, Jorja Smith, Clint 419, Slawn, Walid Labrim, Buck Betty, Knucks and Seb Tabe. While many of these names now command international recognition, Hajjaj photographed several of them before they reached global prominence, capturing a moment of emergence rather than arrival.

The exhibition's title is equally significant. Ends to Estates references journeys from public housing to cultural influence, reflecting the rise of a generation moving fluidly between underground scenes and mainstream visibility. According to curator, writer and broadcaster Ekow Eshun, what makes these portraits so compelling is Hajjaj's personal connection to his subjects.

"It's a measure of his personal outlook, his commitment to friends and kin, that he saves the term 'Rock Star' only for those he feels a real affinity with."

For Eshun, the series is ultimately about something much larger than portraiture. Hajjaj's photographs become affirmations of multicultural London itself, celebrating a city continually reinvented by the communities that shape it. As Eshun writes, Hajjaj recognises in these figures "the same resourcefulness and hybridity that shaped his own trajectory," insisting that multiculturalism remains one of London's greatest creative strengths.

That perspective is deeply personal.

Born in the Moroccan coastal town of Larache, Hajjaj moved to London with his family at the age of twelve. Unable to speak English, he left school at fifteen before forging an unconventional career through Camden Market, underground club culture, fashion and streetwear, eventually launching his own label, R.A.P. (Real Artistic People), in Covent Garden. Immersed in London's creative underground throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he developed the hybrid visual language that would later become synonymous with his work, blending North African street culture, global fashion, music and portraiture into images that feel simultaneously documentary and fantastical.

Whether photographed in Marrakech, London or an improvised studio built around a patterned textile, Hajjaj's portraits have always challenged conventional ideas of identity and representation. Framed by colourful everyday objects and saturated textiles, his subjects appear confident, joyful and unapologetically themselves, reflecting lives shaped by migration, creativity and cultural exchange rather than neatly defined borders.

Today, Hajjaj's work belongs to major international collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, LACMA, the Brooklyn Museum, MACAAL in Marrakech and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, among many others. Yet My London Rockstars, Ends to Estates feels less like a retrospective than a continuation of a lifelong conversation about community, belonging and creative possibility.

More than a portrait exhibition, it is a celebration of the people who continue to redefine contemporary culture from the ground up—one vibrant frame at a time.

Cover: Our Motherland Collective, framed photography by ©Hassan Hajjaj, 2023. Courtesy of Our Motherland Collective crew, Vigo Gallery, London and Hassan Hajjaj Studio