Foud Agbaria is described as 'one of the most prominent young Palestinian artists working today’. In Agbari’s Umm Al-Fahem studio, work for his newest collection Weaving and Cracks began more than one year ago, when he started studying the carpets of the Arab world and the Middle East. Painting then began and in seven months nearly 30 works were completed for this series.
Fouad Agbaria's 'Weaving and Cracks' exhibit at Zahyeh Gallery.
During the opening of his latest exhibition at Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah, Agbaria described his inspiration.
“I am not divorced from the reality around me. When I am painting my country, villages, hills, flora, all of my works are political in their intent. In reality I’m painting the wars, the walls, and the occupation,” Agbaria told Palestine Monitor.
Two works from the 'Weaving and Cracks' collection.
In this work, the recurrent theme of the carpet stands as metaphor for Islam, the Arab world and the artists own youthful, nostalgia for home. Technically, work on the carpet is characterized by harmonic and complex sequences, yet this harmony contains many deliberate and spontaneous errors, jarring the viewer.
Juxtaposed into the traditional Arabic carpet motifs are various symbols, signifying childhoods ruined by wars, and tools of killing and destruction, which have become part of the topography of the Arab world.
The front of Zawyeh Gallery.
In this contrast, the artist creates a domestic space speaking of comfort and familiarity, yet then inserts strange and threatening motifs, further distressing the viewer.
Speaking about the role of the artists in Palestinian society, Agbaria said; “There is no doubt that what the Palestinian artist produces will be affected by what is happening around them, even if the painting is only of a bird or a rose.”
Viewers mingle in front of two pieces from the series 'weaving and cracks.'
“A lifetime of violence and occupation are psychologically and physically reflected in every brushstroke and layering of colour. Artists have an important role in documenting the suffering of the self and the community, and through this artistic work an artist can convey a message to the world, to tell the suffering of the people.”
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