Selected Works

Press Release

Selected Works
Samirah Abbassy. El Anatsui. Johannes Gedamu
Mohammad Omer Khalil. Donald Odili Odita
Arthur Simms. Autin Wright. Juliana Zevallos

March 1st – April 5th, 2003

Press Release

This exhibition brings together the works of eight established and emerging artists of diverse backgrounds and experiences. Each artist in the show draws upon an individual reserve of personal history and an aesthetic nurtured by intellect, clarity of vision and deep philosophical concerns in their search for creative excellence. The artists include Samira Abbassy (Iran), El Anatsui (Ghana), Johannes Gedamu (Ethiopia), Mohammad Omer Khalil (Sudan), Donald Odili Odita (Nigeria), Arthur Simms (Jamaica), Autin Wright (Jamaica) and Juliana Zevallos (Peru).

Samira Abbasy, Iranian by birth, British by upbringing and cosmopolitan by experience exhibits mixed media works on paper that address issues of personal and cultural identity. She draws on the visual traditions of both Middle Eastern and Western art in a manner that is neither superficial nor eclectic, but rooted firmly in her belonging to both cultures. In excavating through layers of often contradictory cultural identity towards a deeply personal understanding of the issues which concern a person of her specific background, Samira’s work approaches a perspective universal enough to include all of us.

The Sudanese master printmaker Mohammad Omer Khalil has been living and practicing in New York City since the late 1960s. A widely exhibited artist, he began his artistic career as a painter but for the last 30 years, he has worked primarily as a printmaker and has concentrated on the technique of etching. In his “Homage to Miro” series of etchings, he skillfully combines a variety of closely but distinct etching processes including aquatint which yields rich dark tones and subtle shadings; the use of soft, hard and lift grounds and spit biting to create works of great intensity and aesthetic beauty.

Juliana Zevallos was born in Peru and presently lives in Paris. Her small-sized collages are rich in materials, colors and textures. They are simple, serene and as matured as thought. Closely viewed, her work is an invitation for contemplation that strives to reconcile intelligence and sensibility, knowledge and intuition as well as matter and spirit.

Arthur Simms who (along with Albert Chong and Keith Morrison) represented Jamaica at the 2000 Invitational Venice Biennial is presently a fellow at The American Academy in Rome. He creates sculpture from modern-day urban detritus that radiates a playful energy and serious inquiry into concepts of origin and transformation. Through their formal rigor and the poetic associations that recycled elements trigger, the sculpture narrates stories of personal identity, family, spiritual and physical journeys.