Al Eid, Al Mufti and The Leader, 2023, Acrylic on linen, 72.5 x 150 cm
Unsuspecting State by Brussels-based Syrian artist Abdalla Al Omari comprises a suite of paintings that unfold in small gestures. Men raise their palms in spiritual devotion or clasp their knees as they kneel on prayer carpets. Al Omari keeps the faces of his figures hidden unlike his former work, notably the 2012 Vulnerability Series, in which he cast political leaders such as Bashar al-Assad, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as poverty-stricken refugees. His latest series eschews ideological blatancy with something more subdued and intimate. Where political vestiges remain, the crop or angle of the painting obscures the entire picture, only hinting at context, like with The Funeral of Nobody (2023), featuring a series of hands carrying a coffin draped with a silk banner. Awash with shades of reddish-pink, color adds another shroud or filter to the painting, where the viewer can just detect fragments of Arabic text on the coffin’s banner.
