Bouchta El Hayani was born in Taounate in 1952.
After graduating from the École des Arts Appliqués in Casablanca, Bouchta El Hayani joined the Centre Pédagogique Régional in Rabat and the École Nationale d'Architecture, where he taught alongside his artistic activity.
His first passion was drawing, which he mastered from an early age with rare dexterity, and whether at the Taounate elementary school or the Moulay Rachid college in Fez, the young Bouchta El Hayani aroused the admiration, and sometimes the incomprehension, of his teachers. Bouchta El Hayani exhibited his first works in the early 70s. He was a member of the Rabat group and had close ties with artists Miloud Labied, Mohamed Kacimi, Fouad Bellamine and Hassan Slaoui.
Bouchta El Hayani's work in the 70s, 80s and 90s was marked by several non-figurative periods, reflecting a temperament unafraid of bold use of color and materials. In the early 2000s, Bouchta El Hayani returned to human figuration with this man, always depicted in profile and full-length, which from then on characterized her work. The metaphysical dimension of this painting is rooted in the importance given to earth and pigment: it constitutes a hand-to-hand relationship with matter and the elements of which Nature is made up.
Bouchta El Hayani has played a significant role in the history of Moroccan painting, and is among the artists who have had an impact on its evolution. As a result, his work bears the imprint of his intransigence towards 104 the artistic process, and his relentless quest for originality. The artist has forged a style of her own, defying academicism and the effects of fashion.
Bouchta El Hayani's works can be found in the collections of the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion (Morocco), the ONA Foundation (Morocco), the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Morocco), the Institut du Monde Arabe (France), the Kamel Lazaar Foundation (Tunisia) and numerous private collections in Morocco and abroad.
Bouchta El Hayani lives and works in Rabat.