Karim S. Lachheb, also known as Kai, is a Moroccan-born American artist, muralist, poet, translator, Mediterranean cook, and world traveler.

He describes himself as a lover of life and a proponent of peace and universal living.

In 1978, he was granted a scholarship to attend the Tetouan Ecole des Beaux Arts in his native Morocco. Subsequently, he was awarded a full scholarship for further studies at The School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he earned his BFA. He then earned his Master of Fine Arts Education at New York University.

Transcending category, cultural and geographical boundaries, Lachheb’s art is wide-ranging, and offers a great variety of series and subject matter; from the purely imaginative to work addressing humanitarian issues and man-made environmental disasters. Lachheb combines all of this with his passionate love for the written word.

His paintings are in various personal collections from New York, Paris, Berlin, Helsinki and Tokyo, to Bangkok, Toronto, Cork, Hamburg, California, Texas, Kentucky, and Tangiers. Lachheb also created a number of murals in the Hawaiian Islands as an artist in residence, where he sought refuge for 13 years.

As a mature, original artist, K.S. Lachheb’s lifestyle reflects his philosophy which is to simply live and let live; have reverence for Nature, and transcend differences between all peoples of the earth through mutual respect and understanding; with an emphasis on creativity and imagination as a means to facilitate peace and harmony. For imagination, as the great Spanish artist Francisco De Goya said, is the source of all marvels and the mother of all the arts.