Oussama Baalbaki
Shadows of Gloominess
March 12 - April 26, 2014

Galerie Tanit showed Oussama Baalbaki’s work for the first time at “All About...Beirut” (Whitebox – Munich 2010)*. At that point we had only been introduced to his work but had not met the artist in person. When meeting the artist recently, to shape this exhibition in collaboration with Agial Art Gallery, we found that he resembles his work enormously.

Oussama Baalbaki’s paintings may inspire stillness and quiet, but inwardly, they are full of incantations. Author, subject and spectator at once, Baalbaki captures moments of freedom of thought and intuition in his self-portraits. In a state of absolute presence, a thought escapes. He objectifies it.

Whether aspiring evasion, looking for balance, trapped in an abyss of intellect or even relishing his monster side, he entwines elements of the outside world with his inner self, creating movement in his gut, and ours. When left alone the viewer will decide what these self-portraits convey, regardless of the artist’s intent. Baalbaki evokes human intrusion in his landscapes. He addresses the defacement of nature, introduces disturbance to his lyrical and serene compositions: electric poles, quarries, soft drink cans or derelict cars. Discreetly, he weaves these elements into the scenery he paints. In a very subtle way and without being shocked overtly, the spectator is faced with two options: either be bothered by these aggressions towards nature, or accept them as hidden but necessary scars.

The exhibition “Shadows of Gloominess“ is a collaboration we sought because Oussama Baalbaki, without being showy, gets the viewer wandering in what he describes as a closed universe, and in what we see as a field of energy that is his painting.

* “All About … Beirut” is an exhibition curated by Galerie Tanit in 2010 in an industrial space called Whitebox in Munich-Germany. The exhibition intended to show the local contemporary artistic production bringing to the forefront the works of 16 Lebanese or non- Lebanese artists living in Beirut.