Tony Khawam
Bear Mountain Blooms
2022

About the Item

Tony Khawam's recent work stems from his interest in histories, human emotion, allusions to place, memory, and the ubiquitous fleeting moments of the conscious and unconscious. The recent work has iconic undertones with a focus on the artist’s fascination with historical imagery from the ancient Mesopotamia, Assyria, Egypt, Greek, Roman, with influences of post-war German and American art adopted into his daily artistic and structural practices with the current surroundings and happenings by marrying a skewed perspective with dimensional flatness, his paintings allude to the continuous development of the American culture. The past and present of “Living the Dream” make the case for the way art and its language of color, line, and shape enrich a viewer’s experience of the work and offer a delicate balance between representation and abstraction, mirroring the real and unreal ways in which he paints lived experience. Moreover, his myriad mediums including acrylic, colored pastel, and spray paint further referencing painterly collage in a more experimental and risk-taking approach. The new work features historical and modern figures, social commentary, fashion motifs, everyday object, pop culture ads, cartoons, film, and Florida flora and fauna that inhabit flat, kaleidoscopic surfaces. The artist’ dialogue with the traditions of the past interweave with his participation in current global artistic discussions. This simultaneous engagement with the past, present, and future speaks to a singular creative presence. The new work is charged with a rawness produced by an ambiguous method to narrative and a fractal, unfinished approach to representing the subjects of the paintings. Characters appearing to piece themselves together from aggregated painterly gestures, these forms become figures of power and personal freedom through their abjection. Khawam’s boundless visual appetite for making pattern paintings with women in history and modern figures that feature an ever-expanding list of quotidian motifs make unlikely visual combinations within expansive fields of exuberant color. He takes pleasure in variety, and fully investigate each of his obsessions before moving to another painting. He trusts that the fundamental underpinnings of painting that gives him the freedom to depict anything he want, and the democratizing surfaces of his canvases work without illusion, perspective, logical scale shifts, or atmosphere. With his blunt yet lyrical approach, each painting has the feel of a complete thought that engages his artistic rich and raucous free association.

Creator:

Tony Khawam (1959, American)

Creation Year:

2022

Dimensions:

Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)

Medium:

Acrylic

Movement & Style:

Post-Modern

Period:

2010-

Condition:

Gallery Location:

West Palm Beach, FL

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1970210590112

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Tony Khawam born in Aleppo, lives and works in South Florida, USA. Khawam received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY (1985) and a Master in Commercial Art from Montclair State University, NJ (1987). He is deeply rooted in his Middle Eastern heritage and the American experience through histories, current events, and the surrounding urban landscape with influences of post-war German and American art. His heritage paintings are formed by ideas about today’s socio-cultural issues such as social disruption, displacement, and immigration, intertwined with the American culture. Khawam has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums and a recipient of recent awards including the “Artist Support Cultural Grant” Broward County Cultural Division, FL (2021/22); the “American Rescue Cultural Grant” National Endowment for the Arts through Florida Division of Arts & Culture (2021); “Individual Artist Award, Specific Cultural Project”, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs (2021); the “Creative Investment Program Award” Broward County Cultural Division, FL (2020). He is a panelist for Grant programs and public art appointed by the Broward County Cultural Division, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and a participant in numerous workshops including “Artists at the Community Development Table” Americans For the Arts (2019); and the “Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute” Broward County Division of Culture, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2019). Khawam’s work is included in numerous museums, private and public collections throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. He has given “Artist talk” and participated as a panelist at several art institutions. Khawam has been interviewed by and published in Sky News Arabia, Boca Raton Magazine; Miami Shoutout Magazine; WLRN Public Media, Miami PBS-NPR; Palm Beach Illustrated; Aventura Magazine; Lifestyle Media Group; News Break Michigan (9/2020); Brooklyn reporter News (10/2019); Artrepreneur Media (9/2019); Voyage Miami Magazine (1/2018); NJ Savy Living magazine, NJ (5/2000); The New York Times, NY (7/1998), to name few.