Rabee Kiwan

Syria

Syrian artist Rabee Kiwan was born in in Suwayda, Syria, in 1984. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts,Painting Department, Damascus University. He lives and works in Paris, France. The work of Rabee Kiwan is displayed in several private collections in Europe, Canada, America, the Persian Gulf and Lebanon.

The main element in my work is human in all his/her states and manifestations. Since the beginning of my experience, I adhered to the characteristics of reality and imitating it in building my artworks, and dealt with my elements in an expressional way close to all its assets. 

I dealt with conflicts in external environment and their impact on human life and internal formation, and worked on highlighting his/her subjective features; which manifested much often by using features of local characters and depicting the complexity of their reality. This depicting, in the course of time, and as a result of my diverse experience, going deeply into the way of building the surface and color, and the use of discarded materials; turned to an emphasizing factor on the inevitability and realism of this conflict in the painting.

In time, the presence of human started to decay in my work, till it turned into a group of symbols or parts of its remains; like a head lying in one of the work’s corners, a hand, or simple parts of him/her still visible in the vacuum. Also, human full presence has been replaced by the presence of remnants of his things; like an old bus out of service, a piece of tank, handcuffs, or any piece of his things. 

Color, too, became more austere. I relied on black and white and some simple tunes of other colors in deepening the conflict situation lived on a daily basis. And I scrimped the color to replace it by the effect and colors of the collage pieces. 

Modernity of art that I work on takes you to sincere states of desire to overcome the typical painting in terms of way of building it; to symbols resemble me; symbols I appoint often within the vacuum that has become a conscious presence in my work, among colors contradiction and contrast, and highlighting the beauty of each one.

Group Exhibitions:

• 2009  Arab Cultural Center - Abu Rumana sponsored by UNDP


2010 - 2011  French Cultural Center, Damascus

2010  Opera House Damasus, sponsored by Petro - Canada

2010  Kuzah Gallery, Damascus

2011  Kuzah Gallery, Damascus

2012  Kuzah Gallery, Damascus

2009  Annual Spring Exhibition

2010  Annual Spring Exhibition

2011  Annual Spring Exhibition

2012  Annual Spring Exhibition

2012  Mustafa Ali Gallery

2013  Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut

2013  Art residence Aley, Beirut

2013  Sunflower Theatre, Beirut

2013 Art Lap Gallery

Previous Artist Next Artist