Event

Tempered FragilityPost an Event »

The Compound Gallery & Studios

May 9 - June 1, 2009

Info

1167 65th Street Oakland, CA 94608
Google Map »
Tempered Fragility
I began this series of ballerinas after a period of not painting and wanting to pick up a brush again and play. They are studies on Degas, painted on old journal entries that have been pasted on board and painted over with a whirl of abstract ground. While I began them as quick sketches of free-flowing marks, they turned into a deliberation of gestures and expressions of my personal psyche over the past year. Believing that painting always reflects your inner rumblings and unconscious, I have debated with myself what they may implicate… a response to the prognosis my doctor gave me over 20 years ago after a near fatal car accident which almost took my legs: “let’s put it this way, you will never become a ballerina.”… OR… the struggle and query to marry the person I was with … OR… simple paintings of women in different states of being… OR… I have used patterns as a medium for several years based on an interest in identity, thought patterns and the landscapes we keep in the context of impermanence and fragility. Revealing transparency and mystery within change allows me and the viewer to question underlying assumptions and projections which overtake a sense of openness. Finally, my day job is to run a small tea company based out of Oakland, California called Numi Organic Tea. The paintings exhibited are small vignettes, many inspired by my brother and co-founder’s photos. These lush far-away landscapes and dreamscapes adorn all of our tea boxes. - REEM RAHIM