Syrian painter reveals ‘moments of love and awaiting’

AMMAN — For Syrian artist Mohannad Orabi the concept of family has always been tied to the idea of righteousness: the right education, the right future, etc. However, as he noticed a rising number of families being separated or losing their homes due to unbeatable circumstances, he said he was pushed to explore these issues through his art.

Born in Damascus in 1977, Orabi graduated from the Damascus Faculty of Fine Art in 2000 and received the first prize in The Syrian National Young Artists Exhibition six years later. 

A painter known for his detachment from fixed directives, Orabi said a lot of his latest exhibition “Moments” currently on display at the Wadi Finan gallery in Amman, was inspired by his relationship and concern with the concept of family and childhood.

“A lot of influence can be taken from the relationship between a child and their mother,” he explained, noting that, from his own experience, part of his inspiration is his daughter.

A collection of 28 vivacious childlike portraits, “Moments” revolves around the moments we experience and live, which move the person from feelings to other feelings, a statement by Wadi Finan said, adding: “The artist tries to portray these moments and express what he feels during them. The moment is all that is in it, whether it is a moment of love or waiting or moving from one place to another.”

“I don’t like to over think what I do, I kind of just like to live the moment just as it is,” Orabi stressed, explaining: “When I feel upset, I paint. When I feel lonely, another different painting comes up. Each piece has a mood independent of the other.”

For the artist, “any human being is a part of the experience another human is going through as well as the surrounding environment”, a reality that he chooses to depict through his powerful use of colours.

“In this current exhibition, there is a strong presence of the colours blue and red,” Orabi pointed out, elaborating that “the mood tells how the outcome of the colours will result as.”

“Sometimes, colours have a much bolder emphasis than the lines or strokes of the brush. Sometimes, there are spontaneous details that get thrown out of the blue without being planned out, forming a coincidence and an accumulation of blended colours,” he continued, suggesting that “this process resonates to what being a human is like. With ups and downs, personalities are formed”.

In a statement presenting the exhibition, the gallery said: “The base was the use of colours intensively on the canvas on the ground and, through the integration into water, the artist empties all the emotions that he feels to gradually show the features of the painting and the captured moment.”

“Orabi’s work sometimes tends to be realistic and sometimes imaginary, and despite the tension we live and the difficult conditions that create a state of chaos, he focuses on feelings and moments through a young girl with her beautiful face, innocence and smile, to leave some peace and create a balance in the painting to deliver hope and joy in life.”

Asked about his defining artistic touch, Orabi stressed: “There isn’t a traditional way that I paint in, I always try to switch techniques and tools…When that emotion is reflected with honesty, it reaches the audience with honesty as well.”

He explained that he does not perceive his work as paintings but rather as collections, noting that “Moments” was made as “I truly was living certain moments of impulse during the preparation and making of this exposition. A lot of it comes from a state of waiting for something specific, other times it was from loneliness, anger and love. Every one of these moments got replicated into a different piece.”

Inaugurated by HRH Princess Wijdan, patron of the exhibition, “Moments” will run until September 27 at the Wadi Finan art Gallery in Jabal Amman.

Listed among Foreign Policy’s ”100 Leading Global Thinkers” in 2014, Orabi is exhibited in various galleries around the world including in Venice, London, Dubai, Beirut, Kuwait, Jeddah and Amman, among others.