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So what? is an exhibition of audacious diversity taking place from July 4 to 24 at the avant-garde Chaos Gallery. Its title serves as a proclamation of unshackled freedom, subversive challenge, and cavalier indifference, showcasing a melange of creatives: painters, sculptors, and ceramists.
Immediately upon entry, spectators are ensnared by effervescently painted canvases vibrant with the warmth of summer hues. In this exhibition, the dominance of oil painting is unquestionable. These artworks compel an entrancing, jubilant ballet of the senses. Hoda Baalbaki’s florals, draped across the canvas with a certain languid grace, command attention. The daring escape of tree branches from their frame, reaching ambitiously towards the azure expanse, and the sun-kissed brilliance of sunflowers lend an effulgence to the canvas.
Amine Sayegh portrays the resplendent landscapes of Bekaa at twilight, unveiling voluptuous geometric forms, meticulously delineated with a palette knife in extensive swathes of vermillion and cobalt. In his work, Freddy Villamil manipulates the opulent medium to spawn a bustling, tumultuous vegetal realm where florae intertwine and spar for territory, arming themselves with thorns in a primal battle for survival.
Eric Alfaro’s artwork epitomizes nature’s ebullient expanse with a cornucopia of crimson petals and aquatic lilies. His robust brushwork imbues the canvas with kinetic vitality, inducing a rhythmic cadence and infusing animation into the foliage in a vortex of vibrational energy that ensnares every minute flicker of verdant life.
Najla Hobeiche advocates romanticism and enigma in her moon-drenched nocturnal panorama. The explosive flurry of arboreal leaves, scattering in a celestial cascade, becomes a luminary beacon within the cosmos.
The philosophical concept of “gaze,” another intriguing theme explored in this exhibition, is expounded upon by three diverse artists: Serge Oryan, whose haunting female effigy stops us in our tracks with its penetrating gaze; Stéphanie Boueirie’s whimsical ceramics, festooned with eyes encircled by lash-like spikes, suggest a dichotomy of offense and defense… The intersection of voyeurism and exhibitionism, societal scrutiny, condemnation, malevolent or benevolent gaze — the obsession with perception is laid bare in all its complexities, mirroring a society where superficiality overshadows substance, underlining the profound importance of observation and visibility.
Mikhaël Fadel plunges further into this obsession with his incessantly recurring ocular motif, playing out like a mesmeric mantra across the canvas, evoking the vertiginous dance of the twirling dervishes, as depicted by the maestro Georges Mattar.
An eclectic congregation of artists await discovery. Notably, Imad Saliba’s bronze sculptures that confront viewers with a raw portrayal of violated femininity and bodies skewered by banderillas. Bassam Kyrillos, by way of capturing dehumanized dwellings, erects his sculptures into bleak towers with windows echoing empty voids rather than portals. Rounding off this artistic cavalcade are Karine Hochar’s sculptures, manifesting as nurturing female entities cradling a bird or winged seraph, their heads inclined heavenwards in an implicit invitation to look skywards.
Undeniably, this effervescent artistic pilgrimage, imbued with the quintessence of summer, is a journey worth undertaking…
Featuring Artists:
Amine Sayegh
Danny Tannous
Eric Alfaro
Fredy Villamil
Hoda Baalbaki
Imad Saliba
Jad El Khoury
Karine Hochar
Leila Sbaiti
Marco Wared
Mikhael Fadel
Missak Terzian
Najla Hobeiche
Serge Oryan
Stephanie Boueiri
Site Web:www.joganne.com
Instagram: @jogannepaintings
