Upcoming and Recent Shows

*Group Show at Lawrie/Shabibi Gallery in Dubai U.A.E. opening June 12th (more info forthcoming).

*"Dis(Locating) Culture" curated by Reem Al-Alusi w/ Shoja Azari, Anouka Faruqee, Amir Fallah, Asad Faulwell, Sandow Birk, Farideh Leshai, Shiva Ahmadi, Jowhara Alsaud, and Negar Ahkami. The show runs from April 15th - July 30th in Pittsburgh, PA at Michael Berger Gallery.

*Solo Show at Kravets/Wehby Gallery in New York, NY. Opening Saturday February 26th.

*"Pieceable Kingdom" w/ Erin Cosgrove, Asad Fauwlell, Maxwell Hendler, Laura Krifka, Mimi Lauter, Devon Troy Strother, and Matt Wedel at Beacon Arts in Inglewood, CA. This show is curated by David Pagel. Opening February 5th. Curator/Artist Panel Discussion March 6th.

*"Staging Identity" w/ Haleh Anvari, Gohar Dashti, Asad Faulwell, Sissi Farassati, Shadi Ghadirian and Malekeh Nayiny at Gallerie Kashya Hildebrand in Zurich, Switzerland. Show runs from March 10th - April 16th

*ArtDubai March 16th-19th

*"Revolutionaries" curated by Kirk Pedersen w/Oscar Magallanes, Asad Faulwell, ABCNT and CRYPTIK. Opening Saturday April 9th @ Pedersen Projects in Pomona, CA

*I have been named one of six artists awarded the "Visions From a New California" artist grant/residency for 2011. Click here for more information

*I have also been shortlisted for the MOP Contemporary Art Prize based in London.

ArtForum Review

A thoughtful review of my show at Kravets/Wehby by Alpesh Kantilal Patel.

03.11.11

Author: Alpesh Kantilal Patel

02.26.11-04.02.11 Kravets / Wehby

Algerian women have served as muses for artists as diverse as Eugène Delacroix, Pablo Picasso, and, more recently, Lalla Essaydi. In his first New York solo exhibition, appropriately titled “Les Femmes D’Alger” (Women of Algeria), Los Angeles–based artist Asad Faulwell deifies the largely unsung female freedom fighters who struggled from 1954 to 1962 to end French occupation in the African nation. As Frantz Fanon writes so eloquently in his book A Dying Colonialism (1959), these women were often called upon to plant bombs in the French sections of cities because they could enter without detection if wearing European dress.

In his painting Les Femmes D’Alger 3, 2011, the starkly rendered black-and-white face of one of these activists, Djamila Bouhired, stares out at the viewer and dominates the canvas, while thin bands of color and decorative motifs flow out from her eyes and connect to an intricately drawn background of florid shapes and patterns. The union of the somber portrait and these latter forms––reminiscent of the 1970s Pattern and Decoration movement, itself heavily influenced by traditional Moroccan textiles and Persian motifs––evokes both the exuberance of life and the specter of death associated with her heroic acts.

With Les Femmes D’Alger, 2010, Faulwell depicts a three-quarter-length portrait of Zohra Drif, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison for her role in a bombing in 1957 but was eventually pardoned at the end of the war. Her strong, handsome face is rendered in a muted palette while colorful, decorative shapes and patterns cover her dress and eyes in a style evocative of Gustav Klimt’s, particularly his beautifully intriguing portraits of lone women. The balance between surface and psychological depth Faulwell achieves in the above pieces veers towards the purely decorative in Danielle Minne, 2010, and Mujahidat #11, 2011, paintings in which the portraits are completely hidden within floral and starburst shapes. These works might serve as metaphors for the manner in which these revolutionary women once seamlessly blended into the background.

"Les Femmes D'Alger" Kravets/Wehby

Les Femmes D'Alger @ Kravets/Wehby Gallery Opening February 26th

My first solo show in New York will be opening on February 26th at Kravets/Wehby Gallery.
Les Femmes D'Alger
February 26th - April 2, 2011
Opening: February 26th 6-8 pm

Pieceable Kingdom curated by David Pagel Opening Saturday!

Opening Saturday February 5th 6-9
@ The Beacon Arts Building 808 N. La Brea Ave. Inglewood, CA

New Work: Zohra Drif #2 48x36 2010

New Work: Mujahidat #9 48x36