Fann A Porter is pleased to invite you to the opening of 'A Playful Path', an exhibition by Fadi Attoura featuring the artist’s newest paintings, large Op art acrylic on canvas work, on Wednesday, 7 November at 7pm.

About the Show
Inspired initially by his children and their creations, Attoura’s works transcend a feeling of hope and virtuosity. The artist explores the carefree traits and innocence one usually finds in children that provide them with an abundance of hope and the idea that our youth are our future. Strongly poetic and very sensitive Attoura channels the multilayers of his emotions into creating deeply raw and unfiltered art.

The paintings allow the viewer to further examine Attoura’s exploration of space and dimension, which he masters by drawing on the formalism of Op art. His grid-like patterns create an illusion of depth and continuous motion, coupled with the seemingly moving figures of what appear to be happy children. As the distances between the lines change, the paintings appear to swell and contract in front of the viewer, placing them in what feels like a scene from a theme park.

Attoura’s Op art inspiration originates from his fascination in mosaic work and Arabic calligraphy. Mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium BC, widely used on religious buildings and palaces in early Islamic art, including Islam’s first great religious buildings, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The artist’s fascination in the beginnings of Op art in the region through mosaics is a strongly apparent in his practice.

The artist draws upon his formal training in order to simplify the figures in the works without having them lose their complexities and dimensionalities. His clean lines and use of color portray strong technical skill that allow the artist to create works that reflect his points of departure, research, and overarching theme driving the exploration in his practice.

About the artist

Fadi Attoura unifies the carefree, childlike spirit that he picks up on from his surrounding environments and the formalism of Op art, drawing influence from the geometric forms and motifs of early mosaic designs. He began his painting career at a very young age – painting for as long as he can remember.

After graduating from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Hama, Attoura began exploring abstraction depicting what he saw as happiness, joy, and human interaction. Following that, the artist decided to return to the study of color as well as portraiture, slowly moving towards minimalism and attempting to simplify the figures in his works, which brought him to his latest set of works. Drawing inspiration from the toys his own children play with and the drawings and art that they create, Attoura was able to unify all these aspects to create works that are very technically strong yet explore deeper emotions and concepts.

Recently, Attoura has featured in solo and group exhibitions at Hama Cultural Center (2018); Emergeast, Dubai (2016); Bahrain Biennial, Manama (2015); and Wadi Finan Art Gallery, Amman (2014). He was awarded the second prize for the Sketch for Syria competition at the IUAV University of Venice. His works are housed in private collections throughout the region. Attoura has also worked on numerous Arabic television series as a director and storyboard artist, including Nadour wa Nathour, Alhudhud wal Kalimat, and Rijal Sadaqu.

Born in Hama in 1978, Attoura lives and works in Hama.

For more information, please contact 971 55 136 9454 or email fann@theworkshopdubai.com