Liana El Safadi, "Patterns and Squares"

From February 18 to March 17 in the Attic of Artists an exhibition of Liana El Safadi is held. The exhibition included new paintings by Liana from a series devoted to folk patterns, and several works in which the artist refers to the work of Ilya Kabakov.

“With Kabakov I’m a bully. It seems to me that he is a bully himself, a swindler: he writes notes, he draws a beetle. It would seem, who does not draw a bug? However, his art is appreciated by art critics and buyers alike. But I think he looks and has fun, and I along with him. He’s hooligan, I add my hooliganism. He leaves a void, I fill it. He blows soap bubbles, I play with them, have fun.

But the main thing that I am doing now is patterns. Everything is very simple: they gave me a Dymkovo toy, something was already at home, and I suddenly thought how great it was! And there is no need to invent anything. And Pavlovo Posad shawls - Klimt is resting! I look at them and get inspired. I do this: I circle a circle, a silhouette, then put the oil on the brush, then on the napkin, and they also come in different reliefs. And I work with this napkin, creating an absolutely amazing structure of the paint layer. It turns out something like a screen print, as when creating the scarves themselves. We can say that I myself plunge into the production process. While I was hooked on these patterns: drawn in a minute, and how many tones, how many effects, accidents. I work and I don’t understand where it will lead me. A riddle you want to solve. ”