Fann A Porter Dubai and The Workshop are pleased to present Emotive Journeys, a group exhibition at Azad Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt.
As part of an exchange exhibition and collaboration between Azad Art Gallery Cairo and Fann A Porter Dubai, Emotive Journeys brings together the work of Syrian, Palestinian and Egyptian artists, Houssam Ballan, Majd Kurdieh, Omar Najjar and Walid Ebeid. The exhibition presents a striking aesthetic sensibilityand narrative expressed through paintings on canvas, paper and wood.
In Houssam Ballan’s latest collection, he delves into entirely into the subconscious. Releasing himself from previous modes of logical thinking, he reinterprets and revisits past works through an entirely emotive lens.
This new series was created during Ballan’s online art residency at CoCulture Foundation in Germany. Many of the paintings were created in collaboration with Beirut-based Syrian musical band, Tanjarat Dagt (“Pressure Cooker”). Ballan and the band explore the decades-old concept of translating music through art, and vice versa. For instance, Three Children At Play, was created as an interpretation of a composed melody. The featured characters are seen in two older paintings of Ballan’s, and are known as “Children of War”—ironically foreshadowing the war that would befall Syria. Here they return as an abstraction—their lines now musical notes, carrying out the rhythm of the song. Numerous other paintings illustrate rhythm and harmony—black depicting silence, and yellow sound.
Artist Majd Kurdieh’s practice incorporates painting, drawing, and literature using recurring figuresthat stand to tell a story, usually carrying a strong moral and positive reinforcement that the artist projects into the world. Over the past several years, the artist has created a ‘cast of characters’, the two main ones being the Fasaeen (Arabic for ‘tiny ones’). The stories told through the representation of these figures are not specific stories that the artist references but rather ones that could apply to any viewer, leaving room for personal interpretation. The Fasaeen, one boy (Fasoon) and one girl (Fasooneh), always smiling despite the fact their world is filled with hardships, are usually accompanied by other characters. The concepts of home, love, devotion and sadness ring strong in all his creations. Kurdieh is masterful in his ability to express our realities through the strokes of his brush and the power of his words.
Omar Najjar has a long interest in humanity and his bold brushstrokes and use of oil painting as a medium combine into a style of contemporary impressionism, the subject of which is usually everyday tasks that seem mundane but are given new dimensions in his work.
In his Rhapsody series, the paintings explore the collective act of orchestral music. Each piece of this new collection depicts orchestra players in action. Each individual has their role but to complete the ensemble and allow the music to play, they must also listen to each other – both instrument and player. By focusing on the collective rather than the individual, Najjar is making a comment on life and how a healthy society functions.Although painting a static scene, Najjar’s use of broad brush strokes, blurred lines and swathes of colour convey movement, energy and even the sound of the notes. By revealing his process through imprecise markings, it is as if Najjar is letting his viewer into the feelings he has for the music and for the act of playing collectively in rhapsody. Rather than concentrating on the figures or the instruments, Najjar is painting the music itself.
The controversial and provocative paintings of Walid Ebeid range from poignant studies of the female figure to People We May Know in the Egyptian society. Tackling difficult issues like sexuality, immigration, politics and oppression, Walid brings attention to the sufferings, struggles, and hopes of humanity. His realistic oil paintings have broken a great deal of social and moral taboos and challenged different customs and traditions imposed by society, to defend women and the oppressed of all categories and social classes.
His searches and experiments went through several phases to reach his current phase, which he calls “realistic expressionism.” His artwork resembles him closely. His art reflects reality and the changes taking place around us and mainly focus on strange things that we may quickly lose interest in, but leave a lasting impact.
