TAREK SEBASTIAN AL-SHAMMAA
SOLO EXHIBITION
THREE GREEN STARS BUT NO STRIPES
SOLO EXHIBITION (MAIN GALLERY)
EXHIBITION DATES: 18TH SEPT 2021 to 9 OCTOBER 2021
OPENING RECEPTION: SAT, SEPT 18TH FROM 4:00 - 7:00 PM
GALLERY HOURS: TUES - SAT / 1 PM - 6 PM
NEW IMAGE ART. 7920 SANTA MONICA BLVD. LOS ANGELES. CA. 90046

New Image Art is pleased to announce THREE GREEN STARS BUT NO STRIPES, an exhibition of new paintings by Tarek Sebastian Al-Shammaa. On view at New Image Art, opening Saturday, September 18, 2021. This is Al-Shammaa’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and with the gallery.

The matrix of navigating the postcolonial apparatus embodies layers of the past along with multidimensional grand narratives by which resilience becomes a mode of adaptation. Set in a complex flux of realities intertwined with generations of history, the post-colonial identity is constantly faced with different sets of times of existence; between the past battling the contemporary realm while western imperialism and colonial methods of pedagogy continuously push their reign over the other-ly worlds. These hegemonic authorities constitute identities and constantly ruminate over time which effects are evident in society. This holds especially true today where numerous conflicting ideologies, wars, fallen empires, and shifting technologies are in constant conflict. Identities are formed in this liminal area of self, which is where we meet Tarek Sebastian Al-Shammaa, a British painter who explores these conversations in his solo exhibition, THREE GREEN STARS BUT NO STRIPES.

As a first-generation French/Iraqi-Brit, Al-Shammaa creates techno-colored contemporary fauvist realms where he delves into tropes of mysticism, colonialism, and tokenism while unpacking his relationship to Iraq, France, his ancestors, and the past/current dominating forces at large. He continually questions the ongoing turmoil and injustices in the Middle East under Western imperialism along with the lasting effects of exotification as a by-product of colonialism and orientalism. His main practice is history painting in which he explores imposing historical and mythological subject matter juxtaposing it with the harsh realities of our contemporary society. Tarek Sebastian Al-Shammaa’s exhibition comes full circle amidst the current upending of the United States’ position in the Middle East.

In each of Al-Shammaa’s large-scale painterly works, he creates individual narratives that reflect on the past decades of colonial supremacy that have affected the artist, his family, and many nations at large. He invites the viewers to experience his intimate paintings of snake charmers, migrants, shepherds, and the shadows of the past and present. Throughout Al-Shammaa’s body of work, the protagonist figures are abstracted, emphasizing the multiplicity of identity while confronting the internalization of Arabic stereotypes created by the west throughout history. In “Unveiled At Tigris” the gestural figures are positioned in classic nude odalisque poses. Al-Shammaa re-contextualizes the colonial gaze set throughout the Eurocentric art canon and creates a post-colonial world, where he presents the viewer with poignant psychological insight into his own life and heritage. Again, Al-Shammaa is half French and half Iraqi, and so has found himself straddling two oft-opposing cultures throughout his life. Combining portraiture and symbolism, he creates deeply moving and eye-catching compositions that are rooted in history but injected with a piercing overtone of the contemporary. His thickly painted portraits and scenes harbor Middle Eastern and Mediterranean motifs with a modernist twist.

Three Green Stars and No Stripes Artworks

Three Green Stars and No Stripes Installation Images