Fadi YazigiClay and Bronze

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Artists develop over the course

of their lives, their methods becoming

more intricate and their skills

increasingly sophisticated. However,

occasionally, an artist is able to shed

his acquired aesthetic education

and regress to an instinctual and

automatic process, unhindered by

the burden of training or expectation.

Through his clay reliefs, Fadi Yazigi

achieves just that.

Clay is a modest and plentiful material

used by artists and builders alike.

However, despite its’ rather prosaic

pedigree, Yazigi succeeds in moulding

this clay to convey movement and

emotion, and ultimately a unique and

powerful vision of humanity.

The figures in Fadi Yazigi’s clay reliefs have a childlike honesty and purity,

distilled of artifice and sophistry. His unrefined human figures protrude from their backgrounds, bearing the

stupefied smiles of blissful ignorance or the vacant stare of desolation. In

some of these clay reliefs the figures appear burdened by the weight,

both physically and metaphorically,

of their fellow human being. Human

interaction portrayed in these works

is invariably strained. The figures are conjoined in a stifling and overwhelming relationship, with one

person usually carrying the other. In

the only clay relief where humans

are actually embracing, the embrace

is anguished and while one partner

clings desperately, the other pulls

back attempting to escape. However,

Yazigi’s figures do appear at peace occasionally, talking to a bird or

reclining beside a dog. Their gaiety

surfaces only in solitude, never in the

presence of a fellow human being.

Although these works are a terrible

indictment of humanity and what it

has become, they also offer a glimmer of what might be possible. These

flesh-like relief sculptures and their layered contours, convey a sense of

the primeval, unsophisticated beauty

of humanity inherent in our basic

nature but which is often subsumed

by the drudgery and oppression of

modern life.

Fadi Yazigi’s clay reliefs define his autonomous vision. These crudely

formed figures carry a genuine power and a savage beauty that far exceeds

their representational allure. They

create in one’s mind an indelible

image of a world that is strangely

familiar but frighteningly strange,

offering a unique document of Man and his condition.

Ghada AlBaher

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BiographyBorn in 1966 in Latakia, Syria, Fadi Yazigi obtained a BFA in Sculpture from the

Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1988. Since then, he has been a prolific painter and sculptor, working with extreme discipline. Yazigi has held nineteen

solo exhibitions of his work in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain. He

has participated in a large number of exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S.A, and his works have been showcased in a number of interna-tional biennials and art fairs, including Art Paris, Art Paris Abu Dhabi, Art Dubai,

Art Palm Beach and the Hong Kong International Fair. He lives and works in

Damascus.

“Art is the culmination of uninhibited creative freedom to visually express the

social and political situation of our times. My works are a nostalgic chronicle of relationships; the source of my stimulation is all that surrounds me and all those

who have left an indelible mark on my life.

Experimenting with various techniques and media, I try to escape from monoto-ny. Whether painting on canvas, cardboard, textiles or newspapers, using acryl-ics, oil or ink, I depict people and human emotions. I paint, sculpt and mould as

I observe the world.

I continue to explore new materials for my work; experimenting in a very wide

variety of ways and forms ... Each new material gives a particular feeling and

each new image, whether on a blank canvas, cloth, paper bag, Arabic bread or

sculpted clay, comes from the same inspiration and current of creativity.”

Individual exhibitions2017 Deborah Colton Gallery - Houston - USA Dar Al Funoon - Kuwait2015 Galerie Tanit - Beirut - Lebanon 2014 Daret alfnoon - Kuwait2011 Q Gallery , Beirut - Lebanon Qattan Foundation - London - UK Nabad Gallery, Amman - Jordan Dar Al Funoon - Kuwait - Kuwait2009 Ayyam Gallery, Damascus - Syria2006 Gezira Art Center, Cairo - Egypt French Cultural Centre, Damascus - Syria Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria Albareh Gallery, Al-Manama - Bahrein2005 Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria Zara Gallery, Amman - Jordan2004 Dar Alanda Gallery, Amman - Jordan2002 French Cultural Centre, Damascus - Syria2001 Dar Alanda Gallery, Amman - Jordan1998 IFEAD, French Institute for Arabic Studies, Damascus - Syria1996 Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria1995 Al Madina Theatre, Beirut - Lebanon1994 Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria Al Khanji Gallery, Aleppo - Syria1993 American University of Beirut, Beirut - Lebanon Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria

Selected collective exhibitions2006 Europe Art Expo, Geneva - Switzerland Ishtar Gallery, Damascus - Syria French Cultural Centre, Damascus - Syria

2003 Gallery Amber, Leiden - Holland2001 Herbert Museum Coventry, England (Dual Exhibition)2000 Dead Horse Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio - USA Jerusalem Fund, Washington D.C., USA

Artists Museum Gallery Washington D.C., USA

1999 Al Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah - UAE International Red Cross Exhibition, Damascus - Syria1997 Latakia Biennial, Latakia - Syria1995 Lebanese Embassy Exhibition, Athens, Greece

1992-2000 National Museum Fall Exhibition, Damascus - Syria

Fairs Institut des cultures d’islam

2013 Syria art ,BIEL ,Beirut - Lebanon2012 Dubai Art Fair, UAE

2011 Abu Dhabi Art Fair , UAE

MENASA Art Fair, Beirut - Lebanon2009 Art Dubai Fair, UAE

Art Abu Dhabi Fair, UAE

Palm Beach3 Art Fair, Miami, Florida - USA2008 Art Paris, Paris - France Art Paris-Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE2007 Art Paris-Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE2006 Art Paris-Abu Dhabi Art Fair, UAE

List of works

3 Untitled, 2011-2014, 25x25cm, Terracota 4 Untitled, 2011-2014, 25x25cm, Terracota 5 Untitled, 2011-2014, 25x25cm, Terracota 6 Untitled, 2011-2014, 25x25cm, Terracota

7 Tree, 2013, 25 x 28 x 16 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 8 Donkey, 2010, 23 x 12 x 38 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 9 Untitled, 2015, 70 x 33 x 25 cm, Edition of 4, Bronze Cube 1, 2014, 35 x 35 x 35 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 10 Elephant and his friends, 2013, 34 x 24 x 12 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 11 Mother and Child, 2013, 22 x 12 x 12 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 12 Head on a plate, 2012, 23 x 40 x 40 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 13 Head on a cube 2, 2015, 35 x 17 x 23 cm, Edition of 4, Bronze 14 Head on a cube 1, 2011, 40 x 20 x 25 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 16 Rooster, 2012, 29 x 11 x 10 cm, Edition of 6, Bronze 17 Cube 2, 2015, 35 x 35 x 35 cm, Edition of 4, Bronze

Galerie Tanit - BeyrouthEast Village Building - Ground FloorArmenia Street - Mar MikhaelBeirut - Lebanon

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Text Credits: Farouq Youssef

Ghada AlBaher

Photo Credits: Wafai Naili

Published by Galerie Tanit - BeirutPrinted by Papermoon, Beirut 2015