ART CITIES:N.York-Farah Atassi
Born in Belgium from Syrian parents and raised in France, Farah Atassi combines various cultural legacies and formal approaches in the medium that she loves most: painting. Characterised by vibrantly colored geometric shapes and plays on perspective, her paintings create imaginary yet inhabited spaces that, by means of their visual trickery confusing depth and imminence, are impossible to fully grasp.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Almine Rech Gallery
Farah Atassi’s first solo exhibition shows new paintings featuring seated women, figures at play, and a circus of sorts. Farah Atassi employs two main, methodological building blocks: a meticulous collection of images and a masking tape grid laid out in order to systematise the patterns produced within the abandoned interiors or scenes akin to still lifes she depicts. Situated on the fringes of narration, Farah Atassi’s paintings mix textile patterns and motley mosaics, referencing Modernism and Folk Art in equal measure. In the artist’s own words what we are dealing with are “figurative paintings that depict abstraction”. Her paintings refer to Picasso and Cubism, reducing everyday objects (vases, telephones, guitars) to flat, elemental shapes that dissolve into riotous paroxysms of pattern. The works also clearly draw from mid-20th century design, which is perhaps why they look new. The current vogue for the clean lines and clear colors of everything midcentury turns these paintings into hipster catnip. The abstract shapes transform her work into figurative paintings, and Atassi notes that shapes are the building blocks for her work, which start with a construction of a stage upon which to set her subjects. “I like to play with artificiality. It’s really like a theater set” she says of her process. Using a grid system, she uses shapes to create a spacial pattern that acts as a background and also a way to play with perspective in the work. Those shapes are then referenced within the subjects of each piece. Farah Atassi graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in 2005, and was introduced to the public notably in 2009 at the Ferme du Buisson (Noisiel, Paris region) and in 2010 at the Salon de Montrouge (Greater Paris), as well as at the exhibition entitled “Dynasty” organised jointly by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Her work was presented at the 6th Curitiba Biennial in Brazil in 2012 and was also exhibited at the Centre d’Art Les Eglises, in Chelles (Greater Paris), in 2011. Her works are in the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou, the Fond national d’art contemporain, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dôle, and that of Société Générale. She has been the recipient of the first edition of the Jean-Francois Prat award (2012).
Info: Almine Rech Gallery, 39 East 78th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, Duration: 20/6-26/7/19, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, www.alminerech.com
