Gallery Tilal is hosting a solo exhibition by Abdul Rasool Salman, one of Kuwait’s established artists and Director of Kuwait Formative Art Association. The exhibition is titled ‘Rhythms’ of 20+ paintings of “attention to the inputs of heritage, the significance of producing without alignment with any of them at the account of the other. ”

“My relationship with reality is not a direct portrayal, but meeting the exceeds reality in an attempt to connect transcendence with unconsciousness, freedom and bringing uncustomary symbols from life with my interest in idea and colors. I believe that freedom in art doesn’t shatter everything and brings mere thoughts. However, its the free commitment which accepts personal aspects in their own objectives, and addressing more attention to what is human.

Painting for me us an aesthetic and a formative human experience, which usually starts with the self, reality, near and far events, and I’m usually attracted to things which inspire me, whereby, I have an intimate desire to produce something .. In this phase, I’m very interested in translating such feelings and events into a visual image, whereby I’m searching for all favorable conditions which complete the success of this experience . Upon each experience, of my artwork, idea and colors, and other artistic values, in which i must find answers that depend on my experience, fimaed through viewing the expressions of others as well as their creative process.

What interests and concerns me is to create something new, associated with my sincere feelings and a a technique that reflects my experience of more than forty years in this field. For me, retain is more sensitive because i address forms that resides inside me and therefore they are presented with a personal vision to a certain extent but are not outworn because I believe that this relationship between the personality of the artist and the objectivity of the art is what gene tares creative artwork. Art should be one composition and ideology.

Pluralism as well is a significant matter to me. It is not conditional that I study the schools whose vision conform with my vision, as this usually leads to creative impotency. Although I have not been affected by it, pluralism offers me more richness. It enables me to understand the other schools, which opens various doors of creativity for me. Here, at this exhibit I’m giving attention to the inputs of heritage, the significance of producing without alignment with any of them at the account of the other. Art is reservoir of images and signs which imagination provide with a relative status and value. To me, it is a mere dictionary from which I select whatever I want and formulate it according to my style, feelings & imaginations.”

Al Maha on Abdul Rasool Salman

Calm colors of oil cascaded peacefully on large canvases gave a serene atmosphere while stepping into Abdul Rasool world. He portrayed the back of man or two men, wearing the traditional custom by Kuwaitis. Some artworks the face features were blurred, but remained calm. There was no motion or movements in them; it was a reflection of still-life in a human figure.

Although I loved the calmness & harmony of colors Abdul Rasool used, I only wished there were more diversions & unexpected twists in some works where can cause a sudden shock of the calmness one feels. I am not a big fan of still-life art because it is too quiet, obvious thus doesn’t move my imagination or trigger curiosity to ask “what? why? how”. Although these are abstract ‘still-life’ portraying “culture” as Abdul Rasool said, the “IT” element was missing & couldn’t make me click with some of the artworks. And I should emphasize that it is not the technique -oil paints on canvas- that prevents from adding a contemporary sense in it, it was smartly selected to convey the calmness and seniority of culture. The below artwork was my favorite among all, I loved the peaceful feeling Abdul Rasool created between one’s identity & society’s identity! This is a state of peace that a lot of people want to reach in their lives, the constant conflict between what we want to be and society’s obligations & expectations. In this particular painting, Abdul Rasool made me feel he reached an inner peace were he became who he wants under the umbrella of the society not away or isolated from it.

 

 

 

The exhibition runs until April 26th at Gallery Tilal, Kuwait.

Cheers