01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Zena Assi's A Storm is Brewing My Beautiful Refugees, with Footnotes #91

Zena Assi (Liban, née en 1974)

A Storm is Brewing My Beautiful Refugees, c. 2021

Acrylic and collage on canvas, six panels

170 x 184cm (66 15/16 x 72 7/16in).

84 x 60 cm each panel

Private collection

Sold for €31,562.50 in Oct 2021

Themes that are central to Zena Assi's vision include present-day issues related to countries in the Middle East as they battle with internal strife and civilian unrest. The artist uses various supports and mediums to document and explore the cultural and social changes around her.

Her work replicates the tumult, angst and cacophony that everyday life in the city is fraught with. Assi's use of pallid colors, jagged angular outlines and intricate layering, imbues inanimate objects, landscapes and buildings, with the emotional burdens of their inhabitants. The artist's central concerns evolve around issues of dual identities, multiplicity, and the potential for residing in this 'in-between' space. More on this painting

Born in Lebanon, in 1974, Zena Assi lives and works in London.

She graduated with honors from l’Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), worked in advertising and taught in different universities.

Her contemporary work draws inspiration from the relations and conflicts between the individual and his spatial environment, society and its surroundings.

The artist uses various supports and mediums to document and explore the cultural and social changes and put on record our urban contemporary environment’s imprint as well as the impact of our society’s ideologies and political tendencies. Her work takes shape in installation, drawing, etching, experimental animation, sculpture and mainly painting. Themes that are central to her vision include present-day issues, like migration and the relation between memories and people on the move.

Many of her pieces are repeatedly shown in different international auction houses (Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Phillips) and are part of various public as well as private collections.

Throughout her artistic practice, her work has won prizes including the Sunny Dupree Family Award for a woman Artist at the 2020 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 2020 – the Rosemary & Co Award at the SWA show, London, 2018 and the Special Jury Prize of the XXIX of the Autumn Salon of the Sursock Museum, Beirut, 2009. More on Zena Assi

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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