NYAB Event - Fathi Hassan "Transformation"

Fathi Hassan "Transformation"

Skoto Gallery

This event has ended.

Skoto Gallery presents Transformation, an exhibition of new works by Egyptian-born artist Fathi Hassan, who is based in Italy. This will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Fathi Hassan’s new works continues his exploration of representational possibilities of language inspired by texts from the Arabic calligraphy, firmly rooted in a framework of references that reflect his Nubian heritage and willingness to embrace a continuum of cultural precedents and influences. Although the texts in his work have no instantly legible meanings or available definitions, it nevertheless serves as specific link between the ambiguities that exist in the writing of images and the images of writing and aims to give voice to the lost traditions of his homeland. He explores the tension between contained energy and boundless space, though he pays tribute to oral traditions, unwritten history and identity, he still manages to avoid a mere evocation of the past or a lost homeland in his work, the visual resonance is undeniable, attesting to the resilience and undying spirit of a people.

He employs expressive gestures and deep sensitivity to texture with swift powerful movement of the brush to create work that is never merely decorative, yet embodies a philosophy of communication which obliges us to reflect anew upon what may unite or what may differentiate among the spoken word, writing and representation. In performance, installations, photography and paintings he exploits the themes of memory, history and the passage of time through the filter of personal experience in making art away from his homeland over the last three decades. Fathi Hassan possesses an inimitable ability to unite color, light and surface while pushing the bounds of his aesthetic to create works of remarkable elegance and lyrical beauty. His work evokes a poetic intimacy that allows the past to be continually revealed through the present.

[Image: Fathi Hassan "Transformation I" (2011) mixed media on paper 11.5 x 8.25 in.]