Ayyam Gallery Damascus is pleased to present the solo exhibition of contemporary Syrian painter Kais Salman, to be held January 30 - February 25. Since first exhibiting with the gallery in 2007, Salman has quickly become a fixture at Ayyam, participating in such standout events as Ayyam’s Summer Festival, Shabab Uprising, and The Young Collectors Auction (I and II). This forthcoming solo show will highlight how the young artist has fervently pushed the boundaries of contemporary Arab art with striking subject matter and bold approaches to painting.
Salman’s latest body of work, The Fashion Series, is a tour de force. Seemingly insatiable figures dominate large expressionist canvases. With heads that resemble those of Willem de Kooning’s women, Rubenesque bodies that teeter on the verge of the grotesque, and a degree of satire that resembles the staggering compositions of 1920s Germany, Salman’s subjects are meant to be visually shocking. That this combination has both formulistic and conceptual elements to it is the artist’s intention, “I want to concentrate more on the expressive quality of the figure. It makes my paintings simpler and more expressive and spontaneous.”
