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Selected works from the
38th Annual Fine Arts Exhibition
38th Annual Fine Arts Exhibition
Jul/Aug 2012
MANAMA
CAPITAL
OF
ARAB
CULTURE
2012
CAPITAL
OF
ARAB
CULTURE
2012
Join artBahrain.org
Jul/Aug
Art Fair
WORKS FROM
RASHID AL KHALIFA’S
“REFLECTION”
SERIES TO BE FEATURED AT
THE BEIRUT ART FAIR
by Laura Stewart
RASHID AL KHALIFA’S
“REFLECTION”
SERIES TO BE FEATURED AT
THE BEIRUT ART FAIR
by Laura Stewart
RASHID AL KHALIFA’S “REFLECTION” SERIES
Works from Shaikh Rashid’s “Reflection” series have been hailed as a breakthrough in which the Bahraini painter took his ever-evolving aesthetic to yet another level -- painting on convex “canvases” custom-made in chrome and white lacquer.
The pieces, ranging from 60x60cm to 150x150cm, are painted on convex “canvases” of varying depth and levels of convexity. All are brilliantly layered with abstract images in enamel colors, resulting in a series that is sleek, sophisticated yet at the same time highly tactile and multidimensional.
The “Reflection” series, following the highly positive reaction to the “Convex” series, has been lauded by a growing group of international art professionals, press and collectors.
Perhaps the widespread appeal of the “Reflection” work is that it is both technically brilliant -- some of it minimalist and restrained in black and white -- with some work boasting geometric shapes and forms layered in primary colours - yet in all its contemporary and highly polished appeal, it is never sterile.
The work is enticing as it “reflects” Shaikh Rashid’s current mood and his desire to use art as a means to achieving personal reflection, but also his desire to offer it to the viewer.
Although executed in abstract compositions, the work has a dramatic emotional and sensual charge, that distinguishes it from work intended to be “purist” and focused on form, color and technique. The thoughts behind the work is reflected in the titles: “Can you see anything?”; “Do you see any black?”; “Red runs through our veins” and “Going alone.
The obvious reference to “reflection” is in the use of gleaming industrial and tactile materials for the “canvas, yet it is in the application of enamel paint, applied in a programmatic four-color drip technique that give the works depth.
According to critic, Laura Smith, “In an unexpected ‘twist’, Shaikh Rashid moves “colour-field” painting to another level ...By applying these selection of colours to evoke the natural elements - fire, air, earth and water in a vertical bar syntax, the lines deliberately form facets intersecting with one another..The structure intentionally suggests portals and landscapes -- both jumping out at the viewer and receding -- some visible, some suggested beyond,”
She continues, “The grounding of the composition comes with the ‘antagonistic’ technique of black and white liquid lines dripped throughout the vertical symphonies of colour; providing an intensely visceral physicality to the work and allowing the surrounding environment to be “mirrored” in the painting. This protrusion and recession of the composition draws the viewer into a nearly four-dimensional experience”.
This technique, and one in which Shaikh Rashid makes great use of negative space, allows the viewer to utilize the work as a means towards capturing both momentary and current “reflections” of themselves, whilst enticing one into a longer contemplation of intellectual, emotional and spiritual “reflection.
It is in this process, that the viewer is invited to capture and hold memories, thoughts, moments from the journey of their lives, which would be impossible without the ability to edit out the cacophony of stimuli to which all are exposed in today’s busy and multitasking world. With all the external “noise” it is rare that a person today is able to find and savor and reflect upon thoughts and memories that for survival have been pushed into fragmentary layers of the unconscious and the subconscious.
As Shaikh Rashid explains: “I express my feelings in the colours I use on forms and shapes based on my recollection of the seasons in life that have passed. The spontaneous application of paint on the chrome surface has many references: women, veils, lace and “mashrabia. Once the viewer is face to face my artwork, I hope to break down barriers, to initiate a journeying encounter, a free-flowing interaction -- a glance of the real -- a starting point towards the future, allowing the viewer to experience a complete reflection of self.”
THE BEIRUT ART FAIR
The Beirut Art Fair, organized by enthusiastic and ebullient Director, Laure d’Hauteville, will this year include a diverse and select group of 25 galleries showing work by a variety of artists in different mediums -- and is expected to attract more than 10,000 visitors.
This year, the Fair will offer additional programmes, video installations, round table discussions and enticing exhibitions including: From Street Art to V Jing: the urban creation of Beirut (featuring the vibrant hip hop culture and graffiti art scene in the Lebanese capital); a project created by noted Middle East curator, Catherine David called “Correspondances” in which two eminent figures of the Arab contemporary culture, Saudi writer, Abdel Rahman Munif, and the painter Marwan Kassab Bachi will exchange letters on the subject of the status of intellectuals and artists in the Arab contemporary art world.
Works from Shaikh Rashid’s “Reflection” series have been hailed as a breakthrough in which the Bahraini painter took his ever-evolving aesthetic to yet another level -- painting on convex “canvases” custom-made in chrome and white lacquer.
The pieces, ranging from 60x60cm to 150x150cm, are painted on convex “canvases” of varying depth and levels of convexity. All are brilliantly layered with abstract images in enamel colors, resulting in a series that is sleek, sophisticated yet at the same time highly tactile and multidimensional.
The “Reflection” series, following the highly positive reaction to the “Convex” series, has been lauded by a growing group of international art professionals, press and collectors.
Perhaps the widespread appeal of the “Reflection” work is that it is both technically brilliant -- some of it minimalist and restrained in black and white -- with some work boasting geometric shapes and forms layered in primary colours - yet in all its contemporary and highly polished appeal, it is never sterile.
The work is enticing as it “reflects” Shaikh Rashid’s current mood and his desire to use art as a means to achieving personal reflection, but also his desire to offer it to the viewer.
Although executed in abstract compositions, the work has a dramatic emotional and sensual charge, that distinguishes it from work intended to be “purist” and focused on form, color and technique. The thoughts behind the work is reflected in the titles: “Can you see anything?”; “Do you see any black?”; “Red runs through our veins” and “Going alone.
The obvious reference to “reflection” is in the use of gleaming industrial and tactile materials for the “canvas, yet it is in the application of enamel paint, applied in a programmatic four-color drip technique that give the works depth.
According to critic, Laura Smith, “In an unexpected ‘twist’, Shaikh Rashid moves “colour-field” painting to another level ...By applying these selection of colours to evoke the natural elements - fire, air, earth and water in a vertical bar syntax, the lines deliberately form facets intersecting with one another..The structure intentionally suggests portals and landscapes -- both jumping out at the viewer and receding -- some visible, some suggested beyond,”
She continues, “The grounding of the composition comes with the ‘antagonistic’ technique of black and white liquid lines dripped throughout the vertical symphonies of colour; providing an intensely visceral physicality to the work and allowing the surrounding environment to be “mirrored” in the painting. This protrusion and recession of the composition draws the viewer into a nearly four-dimensional experience”.
This technique, and one in which Shaikh Rashid makes great use of negative space, allows the viewer to utilize the work as a means towards capturing both momentary and current “reflections” of themselves, whilst enticing one into a longer contemplation of intellectual, emotional and spiritual “reflection.
It is in this process, that the viewer is invited to capture and hold memories, thoughts, moments from the journey of their lives, which would be impossible without the ability to edit out the cacophony of stimuli to which all are exposed in today’s busy and multitasking world. With all the external “noise” it is rare that a person today is able to find and savor and reflect upon thoughts and memories that for survival have been pushed into fragmentary layers of the unconscious and the subconscious.
As Shaikh Rashid explains: “I express my feelings in the colours I use on forms and shapes based on my recollection of the seasons in life that have passed. The spontaneous application of paint on the chrome surface has many references: women, veils, lace and “mashrabia. Once the viewer is face to face my artwork, I hope to break down barriers, to initiate a journeying encounter, a free-flowing interaction -- a glance of the real -- a starting point towards the future, allowing the viewer to experience a complete reflection of self.”
THE BEIRUT ART FAIR
The Beirut Art Fair, organized by enthusiastic and ebullient Director, Laure d’Hauteville, will this year include a diverse and select group of 25 galleries showing work by a variety of artists in different mediums -- and is expected to attract more than 10,000 visitors.
This year, the Fair will offer additional programmes, video installations, round table discussions and enticing exhibitions including: From Street Art to V Jing: the urban creation of Beirut (featuring the vibrant hip hop culture and graffiti art scene in the Lebanese capital); a project created by noted Middle East curator, Catherine David called “Correspondances” in which two eminent figures of the Arab contemporary culture, Saudi writer, Abdel Rahman Munif, and the painter Marwan Kassab Bachi will exchange letters on the subject of the status of intellectuals and artists in the Arab contemporary art world.
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