Fann À Porter in collaboration with Zaat are pleased to present, We The People, a collective exhibition featuring the works of Abd Kasha, Abdallah Murad, Ahmad Kasha, Arda Aslanian, Bader Mahasneh, Basma Al Nimri, Dana Barqawi, Fadi Attoura, Fadi Balhawan, Fayek Dahdouh, Hasan Jouni, Houssam Ballan, Ibrahim Jalal, Jaber Alwan, Jamil Kasha, Karam Matouk, Leonardo Cremonini, Maath Alousi, Majd Kurdieh, Mayar Obeido, Mona Trad Dabaji, Rabee Kiwan, Wajih Wahba, Youssef Youssef, and Zena Assi.
شوارع المدينة مش لحدا
شوارع المدينة لكل الناس
رصيف البحر مش لحدا
رصيف البحر لكل الناس
نحنا الناس
نحنا شجر الشوارع
نحنا حكايا الرصيف
نحنا الربيع
نحنا الشتي
نحنا الصيف
و نحنا الخريف
نحنا الناس
محمد العبدالله
Inspired by Mohamed Al Abdallah’s poem of the same title, We The People celebrates the everyday person and the human aspect that gives life to cities and streets. In turn, this exhibition chooses to highlight the figure, whether it is anonymous or a distinct portrait, abstract or expressive. The figure reminds us of ourselves, someone we know, strangers we meet, or even simply, the body in which we inhabit.
Self-taught artist, Fadi Balhawan (b. 1966, Lebanon) uses inks and pens to fervently transcribe well-known books in Arab literature or spiritual writings, such as the Confessions of St. Augustine. Akin to concrete poetry, the words and shapes reinforce each other in their meaning and symbolism, offering a unique perspective on the power of words to evoke emotion, thought, and profound contemplation.
Syrian artist and researcher, Fayek Dahdouh (b. 1941, Syria) explores themes of philosophy and gender throughout his works. A recurring motif in Dahdouh’s practice is the nude woman. The present work from 1984 is characteristic of his cool palette, vertical brushstrokes, and female figures and was published in the journal, Al Hayat al Tashkilia, in a long form interview where Dahdouh speaks philosophically about aesthetics, imagination and gender.
Lebanese artist, Hassan Jouni (b. 1942, Lebanon) is known for the boldness in his work coupled with political and social commentary. His compositions depict subject matter that is both lyrical and narrative and his use of color is expressive of inner emotions or possibly symbolic in meaning. The strong figure in the foreground raises his arm high while the sun rises behind him. Bathed in warm colors from the light of the sun, they feel as if they are stepping into the dawn of a new era.
Ibrahim Jalal (b. 1947, Syria) draws inspiration from his family and events in his early childhood. Jalal’s paintings are rooted in abstraction, a bright palette, and central compositions with square-like shapes. In The Messiah is Crucified Anew, he includes the religious symbol of the crucifixion, small vignettes, figures and objects, that when they are combined together, they take on a narrative quality.
Jaber Alwan’s (b.1948, Iraq) work addresses the human condition, conflicts in his homeland and icons of Iraqi culture such as the late Dia Majeed, and the 20th-century poet, Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri. Typical of the artist’s penetrating dark palette and surreal colors, Untitled displays the artist’s characteristic thick, almost sculptural, brushwork which accentuates the drama of the figure inside the interior scene.
Syrian artist Karam Maatouk (b. 1947, Syria) works with abstracted figures in color fields. The artist has a nuanced way of painting with colors and textures. In Two Dancers, the light and shadow falls gracefully on the figures melting them together with the background. The areas of color evoke features and forms skillfully mastered.
Iraqi artist, architect, and academic Maath Alousi (b. 1938, Iraq) paints dark and expressionist works with broad brushstrokes such as in this untitled work from 1991. The work depicts an almost obscured face, with blurred outlines has a bright red circular mouth as a focal point, popping through the dark wash of layers.
Depicting Lebanese traditions, cultures and histories, Mona Trad Dabaji’s (b. 1950, Lebanon) work is primarily figurative, with stylized backgrounds. The present work, Cana, ou la Conscience du Monde (Cana, where the Conscious of the World) was made as a memorial to the massacre that was committed by the Israeli army in Cana, Lebanon in 1996. Painted with her classic outlines and almost flat background, the work is emblematic of the artist while addressing the atrocities of the time.
Known for his figurative works, Wajih Wahba (b.1950, Egypt) paints with broad, gestural brushstrokes. Smooth flowing brush strokes of velvety colors give his work a rich tonality like in “Untitled.” His expressionist style imbues emotion, and the figures look as if they are deep in conversation.
Zena Assi (b. 1974, Lebanon) frequently draws inspiration from the relations and conflicts between the individual and his spatial environment, society, and its surroundings. Her works depict figures and portraiture, such as in this series, where she combines figuration and cityscapes in a unique manner. Giving identity to her subjects through their depiction, Assi captures the essence her figures from the background, posture, or expression, she also dresses them in a cityscape, as if they are wearing the city’s “urban fabric.”
Abstract figurative artist, Basma Al Nimri (b. Jordan) searches for the meaning of existence and purpose of life. With a multidisciplinary practice spanning painting, writing and sculpture, Al Nimri’s works intertwine through her exploration of the human condition. Continuously depicting faces or figures, Al Nimri believes humans are the face of the Earth. With that ideology, for the artist, painting a face is equivalent to painting the whole universe.
Fadi Attoura (b. 1978, Syria) unifies the carefree, childlike spirit that he picks up on from his surrounding environments and the formalism of Op art, drawing influence from the geometric forms and motifs of early mosaic designs. Though his earlier works are a steadfast exploration of happiness, joy, and human interaction, the present series returns to the study of color and portraiture, slowly moving towards minimalism and attempting to simplify the figures in his works. Drawing inspiration from the toys his own children play with and the drawings and art that they create, Attoura unifies these aspects to create works that are technically strong yet explore deeper emotions.
The main element of Rabee Kiwan’s (b. 1984, Syria) abstract figurative work is the human figure in its various emotional states. While his earlier works were inspired by observing reality and trying to imitate what he saw through his works, his recent practice has preferred abstraction that lends itself better to portraying heightened states of emotional through facial expressions and the human body.
Ahmad Kasha (b. 1997, Syria) is a contemporary abstract painter and sculptor whose raw and visceral depiction of reality emanate movement and dynamism. With a deep understanding of color Kasha’s allegorical approach to addressing social issues has resulted in a practice that spans figuration and abstraction.
Abd Kasha’s (b. 1997, Syria) contemporary practice combines abstract and figurative imagery with vivid colors and emotive brushstrokes. The present work from the Borders series, confronts ideas of displacement and confrontation, and bares witness to the struggles of pride within our inherent “Arab-ness”.
Simplicity engulfs Youssef Youssef's (b. 1978, Syria) light brush lines, while the cycle of life can't be missed upon the round faces the artist depicts. A subtle humble atmosphere stands out through a solid pale face of women and children. Though expressionless, their mysterious looks have a lot to say about what they run through. An earthly tint overwhelms the artist's paintings, draws you nearer to the dusty environment his characters live in.
Considered a pioneer of Syrian abstract expressionism, Abdullah Murad’s (b.1944, Syria) paintings and drawings are deeply influenced by the fauvist colors and the abstract expressionist movement. His paintings expose layers of details varying from transparent to thick impasto while using the mixture of media textures: newspaper collages, and cut-outs, as seen in the “Orient of Ashes.” This work is in the same series or possibly even created as a diptych to” The Master of Game”.
Dana Barqawi (b. 1990, Jordan) is a multidisciplinary artist and urban planner, whose act of artistic creation is inseparable from notions of the real world. In times where socio-political changes compose an inherent part of our reality, Barqawi chooses to reflect the context within her work, consequently creating politically and socially engaged art. Her work challenges colonial narratives, explores indigenous identities, and aspects of womanhood and community.
Arda Aslanian (b.1981, Jordan) is an Armenian Jordanian architect and a visual artist, based in Amman. Much of her art explores the behavioral unwritten rules of beliefs, attitudes and influences in social groups or cultures. She also emphasizes the possibilities of the human body, with a particular prominence on the female form and the complexities of framing women within a patriarchal society. Her art is the outcome of her constant questions and exploration of her being and belonging to the local context and her subjects act as mirrors for her innermost feelings.
Majd Kurdieh’s (b. 1985, Syria) practice incorporates painting, drawing, and literature using recurring figures that stand to tell a story, usually carrying a strong moral and positive reinforcement that the artist projects into the world. The present work from the One Wound, One Smile series is a culmination of the artist’s decade long practice. Continuing Fasaeen’s narrative, Kurdieh incorporates strong literary and story telling techniques that reference poetry, art history, and a unique child-like naiveté.
Mayar Obeido (b.1995, Syria) is a visual artist whose works depends on the object “Apple” as he tries to create a relationship between the characters that he draws and the apple in attempt to present ideas about repetitions, observation and change. He uses the characters and apple as a tool to express a certain state of the mental image of himself and its reflection on the shape of the apple.
Bader Mahasneh (b. 1977, Jordan) is a polymath working in paint, photography and sculpture. In the present works from the Chaos series, Mahasneh explores the ‘problematic existence of the human beings’ – his work speaks of the ‘void’, of man and machine, and of the connection between destruction and creation, or the ‘building of form’. By using ancient materials, Mahasneh translates the complex three-dimensional densities of painting into sculpture. The artist always believed that sculptural expression could create a stronger presence than painting; in painting the artist creates an illusion. In sculpture, the object exists.
Figurative painter Houssam Ballan’s (b. 1983, Syria) canvases are informed by his accomplished technical abilities and through his extensive academic and research endeavor. Ballan’s frequent experimentation informs the growth in his work. In his earlier paintings, Ballan’s young protagonists are executed with close attention to detail, a form of realism that relies on painterly effects and meticulous line work to create a sculptural sense of figuration. As the bodies of his subjects are given dimensionality, the artist renders their clothes as lines, patterns, and evident brushstrokes with a stylisation that alludes to the passage of time and the presence of an ongoing narrative.
Influenced by the natural elements around him, Jamil Kasha (b. 1958, Syria) sculpts in tune to the organic form of the material itself. Using raw materials in his sculptures, Kasha sculpts busts of figures – mostly women and elements from his environment such as fish, birds and mountain beetles. Abstract and symbolic, the work takes on a primitive form reminiscent of a hybrid between artworks from early civilizations and abstract contemporary work.
Leonardo Cremonini’s (b. 1925, Italy – 2010) poetic summertime figures and landscapes appear both timeless and yet like a photo, taken at a distinct moment. The colors and brushstrokes blend the bodies and the landscape together and the unique light-filled compositions have a geometric quality to them. In this black and white work, the sunbather melts into her surroundings which were created with points and hash marks.
