Galerie Claude Lemand

18 September 2015

KEVORK MOURAD . Art Paris Art Fair 2015 - Mucem 2015 .

Claude Lemand, Kevork Mourad in France .

For the first time in France, the Claude Lemand Gallery is holding a solo show of his paintings in January-February and a group show in the Grand Palais, Art Paris Art Fair 2015. The Mucem of Marseille is inviting for the second time the artist and his wife Anaïs to show their famous performances from 4 to 11 April 2015.

An Armenian born in Syria, Kevork Mourad draws highly from the dual influences of his heritage. A sense of history is embedded in his line. Inspired by the calligraphic concept of putting much thought into limited line, Mourad’s works deal with a first layer of gesture laden with meaning - referencing Arabic calligraphy, Armenian motifs and miniatures. The second layer is the subject matter at hand, usually referencing political and social issues of the present. The artist sees his work as a mirror in time: reflecting a version of the present, refracting images of the past, revealing to the observer what he or she seeks within it, in a dance of meaning that spirals through time.

The dynamic movement in Mourad’s compositions reflects his strong interest in the relationship between the visual arts and music. A significant part of his artistic practice involves the technique of spontaneous painting, in which he creates work during live performances with musicians. Mourad showcases this engagement with musicality through his dancing figures on canvas. With his technique of spontaneous painting, where he shares the stage with musicians - a collaboration in which art and music develop in counterpoint to each other - he has worked with many world class musicians. He is a member, as a visual artist, of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. He has performed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Chelsea Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Chess Festival of Mexico City, The Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art in Yerevan, Le Festival du Monde Arabe in Montreal, the Stillwater Festival, the Nara Museum in Japan, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Rubin Museum of Art, Harvard University, Lincoln Center Atrium, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Central Park’s Summerstage with the Silk Road Ensemble and Bobby McFerrin.

In Mourad’s work there is a sense of history embedded in line. Inspired by the concept in Asian art of putting much thought into limited line, Mourad’s works deal with a first layer of gestures that are laden with meaning. This first layer references Arabic calligraphy, Armenian motifs and miniatures, the few gestures of his line supported by a long history. This first layer serves as a guide into the second layer, which is the subject matter at hand, also very much influenced by the ancient history of the artist’s heritage. In confronting a work that is directly inspired by the ancient cultures that came before it, the observer can feel the long line of history supporting the present, the tumultuous present taking inspiration and hope from the past.