Asad Faulwell
asadfaulwell@yahoo.com Go to asad-faulwell.com for more images
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Beautiful Decay / Made with Color feature
Check out this feature on the Beautiful/Decay site http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/06/04/made-with-color-presents-asad-faulwells-ornate-political-paintings/ presented in conjunction with madewithcolor.com
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Rogue Wave '13 @ L.A. Louver Opening July 18th
I will have new work in Rogue Wave '13 @ L.A. Louver in Venice Beach. The show opens July 18th and runs through August 24th.
The show will feature work by Sarah Awad, Matthew Brandt, Kent Familton, Asad Faulwell, Sherin Guirguis, Peter Holzhauer, Farrah Karapetian, Laura Krifka, Own Kydd, Ashley Landrum, Heather Gwen Martin, Christopher Miles, Alison O'Daniel, Kim Schoenstadt, Eric Yahnker.
http://www.lalouver.com/roguewaveprojects/html/next.html
The show will feature work by Sarah Awad, Matthew Brandt, Kent Familton, Asad Faulwell, Sherin Guirguis, Peter Holzhauer, Farrah Karapetian, Laura Krifka, Own Kydd, Ashley Landrum, Heather Gwen Martin, Christopher Miles, Alison O'Daniel, Kim Schoenstadt, Eric Yahnker.
http://www.lalouver.com/roguewaveprojects/html/next.html
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Essay by Franklin Sirmans for "Pins & Needles" @ Nerman MOCA
Asad Faulwell:
ReInventing History Painting
Asad Faulwell, like fewer and fewer artists of his
generation, has an axe to grind. Having
acquired a facility and technique for creating seductively patterned and
textured paintings he has more recently built narratives directly into the
surfaces of his pictures. And, the diversity of his approach is evident in the
selection of paintings in this, his first solo museum project. In this ongoing
series, since 2010, Les Femmes D’Algers,
Faulwell has created paintings to consecrate his women of Algeria. In so doing he has sought to explore
territory with a long art historical legacy. And, while he isn’t painting nudes
the story of the naked unclothed female body as painter’s subject is worth
noting.
In the history of western painting the female nude has held
interest for countless painters since the 16th century. Renaissance
artists like Giorgione and Titian found the nude to be the perfect focal point
for their pictures. By the 19th century, travel, trade and empire
building led to a different type of nude female painting. French colonialism
prodded visual testimony to ideas of the exotic and erotic other in the 19th
century. Here we enter the ways in which a young contemporary artist can find
similar territory of utter necessity to explore further.
Born in Idaho to an Iranian family, Faulwell’s interest in
Algeria has roots in his own existence but it is one that is detached, sober
and lacking in romanticism. He has learned and continues to practice the
essence of his trade. Color, line composition are the tropes of his work and he
sets about working through those tried and true elements as have great painters
before him.
In the era of colonialism, though the woman still reclined
in a languorous pose, she became darker, at least around the eyes, and the
scene of the pastoral landscape that had already evolved from the Renaissance
into darker more sensual, Baroque interiors became the site of the harem.
Painted from travel accounts, Ingres’s Grand
Odalisque of 1814 as its name implies focuses on a slave or concubine. Though Ingres never traveled outside Europe
he read travel accounts, particularly those from Turkey and made many pictures
of odalisques from his imagination. Delacroix, who did study abroad as a documentarian
for a political mission, in particular six months spent in Morocco with a spell
in Algiers, painted Les Femmes d’Algers
in 1834 and another version in 1849. And, no matter how Romantic the painting
is, its power as a document of imperialist intent is remarkable in the 21st
century. Picasso studied both Ingres and Delacroix at the Louvre before
creating 15 variations on the scene in 1954-1955. Picasso experimented deeply
with variations painted in grissaile, extinguishing the cultural import of lavish
colors.
For the younger artist, such a fraught history might be
problematic. In order to get at a variation on the scene in the contemporary,
the young artist, beatifies, rather than distorts. De Kooning has already
performed a less than glorious distortion of the abstracted female body. In his
paintings Faulwell celebrates the warrior women who fought for independence.
Rather than employ an everywoman throughout the paintings, he has looked
closely at the individuals to recount their stories. Like Picasso, he looks at
the women from all angles. In some of the paintings, a grissaile visage of the
heroic woman looms large as in Les Femmes
d’Algers #8. Or, in #12, the
figure is almost obscured, reclining at the bottom of the painting under
billowing sashes of geometric color and floral motifs perhaps inspired by
Islamic textiles.
In Djamila Bouhired #2
and Mujahidat #9, Faulwell builds
surfaces that appear abstract from a distance yet upon closer inspection, he
has collaged heads of the women into the surface. The influence of Fred
Tomaselli is evident in these paintings, as the background surfaces are
indebted to artists like Robert Kushner a proponent of the Pattern and
Decoration movement since the 1970s. Faulwell’s usage of the collaged representational
image as a device for creating lines and contours is also reminiscent of the
early work of Ellen Gallagher who took miniaturized stereotypical images of
blackface characters and embedded them into her paintings as formal devices to
move the eye across the expanse of large paintings. Only a viewer’s close
inspection would yield something of a realist or representational manner.
Likewise, Faulwell constantly seeks new ways to mix his concerns for formal
innovation with conceptual weight. Some years ago the young artist was prompted
by such a proposal.
MG: Can you see a time when you
would just make a pretty picture for its own sake or is some content inevitable
with your approach?
AF: I think that the content is
inevitable. The formal qualities are really tied up in and are reliant on the
content.[i]
[i]
Mat Gleason, “Cover Story: Asad Faulwell,” in Coagula Art Journal, Issue #96,
February 2009, p. 53.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Asad Faulwell and Chris Johanson @ The Nassau County Museum of Art
I will have several pieces from 2010-2013 in a two person show with Chris Johanson at The Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, NY. The show opens March 9th and closes June 16th.
for more information check out http://www.nassaumuseum.com/exhibits_asad_faulwell.php
I will also have new work in the Lawrie/Shabibi booth at Art13 in London from March 1st to March 3rd.
The booth was named one of the 10 ten at the fair.
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/872905/see-the-top-10-booths-from-londons-maverick-new-global-fair
for more information check out http://www.nassaumuseum.com/exhibits_asad_faulwell.php
Les Femmes D Alger #25 48"x36 |
I will also have new work in the Lawrie/Shabibi booth at Art13 in London from March 1st to March 3rd.
The booth was named one of the 10 ten at the fair.
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/872905/see-the-top-10-booths-from-londons-maverick-new-global-fair
Les Femmes D Alger #24 84"x72" |
Sunday, February 17, 2013
"Pins and Needles" at The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art Opening February 22nd
My first museum solo show "Pins and Needles" will be opening at Nerman MOCA on February 22nd. The opening reception will begin at 6 pm followed by a lecture at 7 pm. The show will feature several medium to large scale works from 2010-2012.
The reception has been postponed due to extreme weather and will be rescheduled.
For more information check out http://www.nermanmuseum.org/exhibitions/exhibitions
Les Femmes D'Alger #12 48" x 36" 2011
The reception has been postponed due to extreme weather and will be rescheduled.
For more information check out http://www.nermanmuseum.org/exhibitions/exhibitions
Les Femmes D'Alger #12 48" x 36" 2011
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