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Best First Solo Exhibitor - 2021
Best First Solo Exhibitor - 2021
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Hala Ezzeddine
Hala Ezzeddine
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In Search of Light. Oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas |
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In her hometown Arsal, near Syria, Hala Ezzedine took to her paintbrush to breathe color and life into an otherwise dire and desolate situation. The town in which she was living and working as a fine arts teacher in a public school has been receptive to a number of Syrian refugees, much of whom are the children she has come to know and teach. In her first solo exhibition at Agial Gallery titled ‘In Search of Light’, she depicts these very children in a symphony combining portraiture and abstraction, along with newer works which have broadened her arsenal, most of which pertaining to Lebanon, a response to the current catastrophic state the country finds itself in.
The decidedly thick and wide brushstrokes she employs renders her paintings impressionistic in character, yet her choice of color and subject matter prevents them from being too romantic or high-spirited, emphasizing the intention behind the canvas. The somber tones of the portraits of her students go hand-in-hand with the visions of destitution that are being described, despite getting interrupted by bolts of vivid color. The faces within each portrait are not detailed enough to be recognizable, but the features are discernible through the expressive enmeshing between the visages and the background behind them, creating a peek-a-boo where a face could be distinguished among the layers of interlaced paint-strokes. The result is a dynamic interplay between the visible and invisible, crucially addressing the surroundings of the subject matter and the context they are illustrated in, specifically their legal existence in Lebanon following a war in their homeland.
Some of the children, with their skin painted in rich palettes of claret, pink and crimson give off the impression of having been flayed, perhaps alluding to the sheer vulnerability and defenselessness they find themselves in. Many of the portraits are named after the individuals sitting for it. This humanist move gives a voice to the voiceless, and the social commentary behind the art cannot be missed, specifically when coupled with the expansive picture plane of the canvases, giving a space for them to coexist perhaps harmoniously with the rest of the country which finds itself in a calamitous condition. Ezzeddine’s visions of Lebanon, which are just as dynamic and discordant as her portraits, offers a glimpse into a world caught in a limbo between resilience and complete and utter chaos, much like the obscure faces caught between visibility and complete erasure. |
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