Nihad Al Turk
Biography
Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1972 amidst abject poverty, Nihad Al Turk has developed a mature painting style against all odds. With no academic training but several years of practice and experimentation behind him, he has established himself within the contemporary Middle Eastern art scene, holding solo exhibitions in leading art spaces in Syria and Turkey, in addition to being included in a number of collective exhibitions in the US.
Al Turk’s haunting mixed-media canvases are highly influenced by his outlook on life and individual political convictions. Believing that man is innately flawed and that only through an existence filled with love can there be human progress, he drafts compositions that hint at the injustices of the world around us. He does so with a sophisticated technique of flattening space and utilizing color fields and patterns to give illusions of depth and dimension. Creating an aesthetic that is based on the tradition of still life painting, yet is dominated by symbolic representation, his works employ a detailed system of signs that allude to philosophical conclusions. This is not unlike the religious works created during the High Renaissance in Flanders, in which images of Christ and the Virgin Mary were surrounded by objects that expanded the narrative of a painting by implying greater meaning.
In Al Turk’s work an image of a vase takes on inferences that point to a deformed character, as its distorted form seems to teeter on the edge of a surface. Floral arrangements appear weathered as they are depicted under the darkness of a heavy shadow, while human figures are rendered as alien beings and animals are mutated nearly beyond recognition. The only items that retain their original form are bowls of fruit, perhaps suggesting the sustenance of life. Biblical references are abound, not only with a large painting that seems to depict the ubiquitous “last supper,” a subject matter that also points to a larger tradition in art but also with the reappearance of things in increments of seven. While manifested in reoccurring anthropomorphic figures such as a mouse or devil-like figure, this reference might possess greater meaning than just the artist’s number of siblings, as the seven deadly sins seem appropriate in Al Turk’s tragically spiritual universe.
Artist Exhibitions
Nihad Al-Turk Solo Show, At Ayyam Gallery, Damascus 21 Nov - 31 Dec, 2009View Exhibition
Shabab Uprising 19 Feb - 19 Apr, 2009
View Exhibition
Artist Publications
Nihad Al-TurkView Publication
Selected Works
NT53 Nihad al - Turk 'Portrait' 120x120 cm. Mixed media on canvas, 2009
NT68, Nihad Al - Turk 'Dialogue' 160 x 170cm, Mixed Media on Canvas
NT76 Nihad Al-Turk ‘March Myth’ 190 X 438 cm. Mixed Media on Canvas 2011