Michel ABBOUD - Impressions : Sept. - Oct. 2019

IMPRESSIONS
M I C H E L A B B O U D

IMPRESSIONS
M I C H E L A B B O U D
17 SEPTEMBER - 1 OCTOBER 2019

PREFACE
Opera Gallery is delighted to present in Beirut for the first time a solo exhibition of New York
based Lebanese artist Michel Abboud. ‘Impressions’ is a celebration of the artist’s recent works in
his native land.
Everything Abboud has created is connected with his heritage. His art is heavily influenced by
his childhood in the war-torn environment of Beirut in the late 1970s and 1980s. Upon seeing his
works, one is lead to reflect on the nature of conflict, whether inner or circumstantial. The act of
painting appears to be more of a struggle between man and canvas, but in reality it is a clash
between man and man, between one and one’s self. The dual conflicting nature of those questions
is at the essence of his art process.
The artist would describe his paintings as “non-paintings” because each art piece is only intended
to represent itself. He believes that people have been so conditioned to perceive paint as a
means to an end that they forgot to see it for what it really is. It can be molded, sculpted, layered,
embossed, debossed, sanded and scraped. Abboud does not use only his hands, he uses his
entire body as a tool. Does it make it a sculpture? What about the fact that it is a paint coated
canvas? Doesn’t that defy its reading as a sculpture as well? Can it be both or does it have to be
neither? Is this duality another conflict or a resolution of this paradox?
By introducing Abboud to our esteemed collectors, we hope to bring to you this primal and
sensorial experience that truly evokes the meaning of artworks. We hope you enjoy Michel
Abboud’s presence as much as we do.
Gilles Dyan
Founder and Chairman
Opera Gallery Group
Salwa Chalhoub
Director
Opera Gallery Beirut

PAINTINGS
Gemini | Layered | Impression
This exhibition showcases my work of the past two years.
It starts out with my very first Gemini Series 4x4 feet diptych paintings, which then evolved into to
my large format layered pieces that are heavily influenced by a mix of childhood experiences in a
war-torn country and tumultuous experiences in New York over the last few years. The exhibition
then leads to my latest sculptural pieces of folded canvas on canvas that came as a result of years
of experimentation with the materiality of form and content.
The Gemini Series is not intended to represent anything other than itself. I use high viscosity acrylic
paint with no brushes and no knives- just my hands, while using my entire body as a tool to cover
the large format canvases laid on the ground.
With this series, one painting on canvas is created with texture and another canvas is overlaid on
top which is then ripped apart to become a sister canvas and a new piece of art. The subsequent
sister piece carries the residual scars and traced of the initial outburst. One is a continuation of the
other. Even though one is a negative and the other is a positive, neither one is identical. One is an
emotional piece and the other is a release piece, which come hand in hand. Both architecture and
art are linked, identities are blurred but also merged. The dual conflicting nature of this process is
at the essence of my art.
On the other hand, the diptychs address the dual nature of man. Just like a Rorschach test, the
dual piece replicates itself in complementary but non-identical way, the end of one marking the
beginning of the other.
I see my pieces as “non-paintings” because each art piece is not intended to represent anything
other than itself. We have been so conditioned to perceive paint as a medium to achieve a final
product that we forgot to see it for what it really is. Paint is paint, a material, colored matter, just a
paste, no longer a medium of abstract or figural representation. It can now be molded, sculpted,
layered, embossed, sanded and scraped, and by such take on an entire new meaning.
GEMINI
SERIES

Gemini in Copper (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

Gemini Tempest, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

Gemini in Gold (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

Gemini VII (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 180 cm
70.9 x 70.9 in

Gemini VI (diptych), 2018
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

Papillon (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

Dragon (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 240 cm
47.2 x 94.5 in

LAYERED
SERIES

Layered black, 2018
Acrylic and paper on canvas
120 x 120 cm
47.2 x 47.2 in

Sarah, 2018
Acrylic and burlap on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

Angela, 2018
Acrylic and fabric on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

IMPRESSION
SERIES

Impression First Child, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

Impression Second Child, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

Discovery, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

Impression in Blue Metal, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 35.4 in

Impression in Gold (diptych), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 180 cm
70.9 x 63 in
Following pages:
Impression Triptych I, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
180 x 270 cm
70.9 x106.3 in

After investigating the possibilities of manipulating the actual paint matter in a sculptural and
material process, I have then proceeded to explore the physical support itself: the canvas. So many
artists over time have manipulated the canvas in different ways. Some have left it blank, others
painted in white or in various colors, some burned it, some stabbed it, and others tore it. I have
chosen to fold it. By stripping it from its frame, then slicing it, in order to finally fold it on to itself,
I aim to blur the distinctions between content and container, support and object, medium and
product. The folded canvas freed from its frame can now take on a multitude of new forms and
materiality.
Each piece is unique and can never be replicated as each fold is unique – like a fingerprint – due
to the complexity of the form. By taking on a variety of light sensitive colors, ranging from metallic
hues to shades of darks, down to pure white, I am investigating the way form and color dynamically
react to light depending on the temperature of light and the position of the viewer. Each piece
uses traditional materials: regular paint on basic canvas, applied with a standard brush.
FOLDED
SERIES
Yet by applying the amazingly simple process of the fold, what started out as a classic application of
paint on canvas now becomes a remarkably complex array of forms that refract light in a multitude
of ways, unconstrained by the two dimensional space of the flat canvas.
The resulting piece blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and opens a dialogue
about the distinction between the two: is it a painting or a sculpture? In the end, it is an object in
space, with a certain materiality, and a dynamic reactivity to light, intended to only be appreciated
for what it is, as opposed to what it is not.

Folded Black Gold, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
120 x 120 cm
47.2 x 47.2 in

Folded Black II, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
120 x 120 cm
47.2 x 47.2 in

Folded Black Metal, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
180 x 90 cm
70.9 x 35.4 in

Folded Bronze, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
180 x 120 cm
70.9 x 47.3 in

Folded Chrome, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
180 x 90 cm
70.9 x 35.4 in

Folded Midnight, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
180 x 160 cm
70.9 x 63 in

Folded White II, 2019
Acrylic, metallic paint and canvas on canvas
120 x 120 cm
47.2 x 47.2 in

My parametric sculptures are a physical manifestation of the digital, in a technological world
where the digital has replaced the spiritual. The omnipresence and omnipotence of digital space
is sustained by the unequivocal presence of technology in every aspect of our daily lives. Our
religious dedication to technology and the digital world has caused digital imagery to become the
icons of our new system of belief.
The pixel - the smallest unit of a digital image - is a digital atom that sculptures like Totem or
Digital Versicolor represents three-dimensionally in the form of the agglomeration of hundreds of
pristine cubes. The same way pixels aggregate to create an image, these three-dimensional pixels
of various materials and colors are manipulated parametrically to create a physical object that
represents the embodiment of the digital world.
The centrality of Totem will reminisce indigenous ceremonies by very the act of gathering around
an icon of belief. It will represent the central role technology has had in connecting us all. The
structural impossibility that Digital Versicolor or Pixel Tree defy challenge the common notions
of balance and equilibrium. But ultimately, the real paradox relies in the very fact that despite
advanced digital scripting software generating the complex relationships between the 3D pixels,
each sculpture is built by hand, in an artisanal way.
SCULPTURES

Vine, 2019
Solid cedar wood
Edition of 3
110 x 35 cm
43.3 x 13.8 in

Erosion, 2019
Painted stainless steel
Unique piece
190 x 50 cm
74.8 x 19.7 in

Digital Versicolor, 2019
Painted stainless steel
Unique piece
180 x 44 x 43 cm
70.9 x 17.3 x 16.9 in

Pixel Tree, 2019
Solid Cedar wood
Unique piece
180 x 56 cm
70.9 x 22 in

MICHEL ABBOUD
Michel Abboud is an artist and an architect based in New York.
He started his career by founding the award-winning architectural practice, SOMA. His designs
have attracted critical acclaim for their boundary-pushing nature. Having earned a Masters in
Architecture from the Columbia University, Michel built a reputation for provocative projects.
Michel’s defiant no compromise stance, in terms of design, continuously raises the bar in the
architecture sphere and has gained him respect among a loyal client base and fellow design
professionals. His work is rising around the world today with remarkable offerings of projects
that underscore his firm’s cutting edge appeal.
He is known for designing the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center a few blocks from Ground
Zero in New York City, which further catapulted him into prominence, with one journalist
dubbing him ‘the most controversial architect the US has known’. Such notoriety has led
to a subsequent influx of invites as speaker and guest of honour at prestigious universities
across the United States and Europe. Today, after winning numerous international awards, he
is known for being one of the youngest architects to have designed a skyscraper in New York,
at the age of 36, as well as a groundbreaking tower in Dubai.
In recent years he has shifted his career from architecture to art, a shift that began by his
combining art and architecture through the creation of large-scale parametric sculptures in
various urban and rural landscapes around the world. His solo show at the Hoerle-Guggenheim
Gallery in New York in 2018 was entitled “Unfolded” and covered his recent paintings which
are heavily influenced by his childhood in a war-torn environment. He uses high viscosity
acrylic paint with no brushes and no knives - just his hands, while using the entire body as a
tool to cover the large format canvases laid on the ground.

Published by Opera Gallery to coincide with exhibition Impressions, 17 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2019.
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