Farah Atassi creates large-scale paintings which combine the influence of Modernism and Folk Art. Abstract and figurative components collide in her canvases, with central figures or still life scenes situated within phantasmal surroundings. Heightening the emotional crux of the central subject, Atassi’s hallucinatory backgrounds draw out the expressions and sensorial quality of the principal image. Brass instruments are presented with sporadic, notational markings, whilst a female bather is accompanied with more contemplative, softer gestures. The intoxicating spatial dynamics that Atassi works with echoes the heady perspective championed by the Cubists. The works themselves are made with oil paint and enamel, developing via a masking tape grid laid out to bring a sense of order to Atassi’s heady mosaic of imagery. Each work is delivered in concrete, vivid hues and the figurative elements are drafted in bold, graphic registers. In the artist’s own words, she creates “figurative paintings that depict abstraction”. Enrapturing to encounter, Atassi’s has conjured a distinctive realm of her own to work in, creating dizzying and electric paintings which demand the viewer’s attention. ...
