Anas Albraehe’s solo exhibition, The Dreamer, is on view at Anita Rogers Gallery.
Since we were born, we have never celebrated, we only survived, hoped and dreamed.
Stop the injustice until we wake up
Even though we are asleep, but we’re not well
We are the people of the world
– Anas Albraehe
Albraehe paints expressive portraits of men asleep, these are laborers and refugees enjoying a brief respite from the day to day. There is a historical precedent for painting sleeping figures – and men in particular (vs the ubiquitous reclining female nude) – artists from Goya to Bacon to Van Gogh have broached the topic.
While Van Gogh’s are the most akin to Albraehe’s with the use of bold colour fields, Albraehe’s are distinctly his own. Inspired by Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin, as well as the Syrian and Lebanese landscapes, the artist chooses a vivid and varied colour palette, embracing bright yellows, pinks, and greens, balanced with swaths of white bedding.
Albraehe paints from life and lets the work guide him, he chooses colours and shapes intuitively as he moves through his process. The finished compositions verge on abstraction while maintaining their figurative roots. Albraehe’s figures appear safe, warm, and protected, if only momentarily, from the worries and problems of everyday life. Their bodies are at rest and their minds are caught up in dreams, dreams the painter offers us a glimpse of through his lush patterns and brilliant hues.
The exhibition is on view until the 27th of August, 2022.
The info is extracted from the press release.
Images courtesy of the artist.