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Overview

Informed by his training in architecture and fine art, Fathallah Zamroud approaches the constructs of space and time through the medium of painting. Although he often works from his own photographs of temporary dwellings and abandoned sites, his works are known for their expressive brushwork and dramatic use of colour that mine the inner emotional registers of a moment.

In his paintings presented at SB13, foreground and background, architecture and landscape are enmeshed in thick, gestural applications of paint in dark, muted tones that make it difficult to distinguish between the two perspectival planes. Zamroud’s goal is not to distort realistic depiction as much as to bring to the fore the lasting and totalising impact of war on the urban fabric. Devoid of human presence, the stillness and silence that are explored in his canvases convey the modality of witnessing, a distinct position that by its very nature forecloses the possibility of identifying with an imagined subject.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.