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‘TIME TO FACE UP’
METRO LIFE, 15 September 2006
by Rob Haynes
Words are rarely fully effective in conveying the physical essence of art, a situation notably in the case with the giant portraits of Nahem Shoa, who has managed to trap the appearance of things in a way that is convincing and new. The Paintings stand about 6ft high, and are sculpturally thick with paint. Enveloping and imposing, they offer the viewer different ways of looking, choosing between the near-abstract effect from close up or the detailed accuracy from a distance. In Shoa's paintings we are constantly aware of the |
paint's existence and how it has been manipulated to animate the picture surface.
This Achievement is impressive, and even more so when the true scale of the process is known' the paintings in this project took me around seven years', explains Shoa. 'Each head takes a year to paint. A year means 60 or 70 four-hour sessions. I'm painting a whole year in someone's life, it's not a snapshot. They are about time as well. I cant do justice to them more quickly.'
The title of the show, Facing Yourself, reveals a theme behind the project. It is, the artists says,' looking at who we are in Britain now, and the melting pot we've become.' However, Shoa stresses that there is no simplistic preaching involved: To see a black portrait in a modern gallery is quite rare. So I'd like people to leave just thinking: " Aren't they great paintings", and not even be aware that they're been looking at these mixtures of people.' The international video artist Kutlug Ataman, who sat for the artist jokingly hailed Shoa." As the Velazquez of Multi culturalism."
Heavily - almost obsessively - devoted to the art of portraiture and the art of painting itself, Shoa's style displays similarities with the work of esteemed British portraitist Lucian Freud. With the Scale and technique it is also possible to see the influence of late Monet, whose Impressionist brushwork managed to convey great depth in simple broad strokes.
'When you see my paintings, they're so textured - paint goes to an inch thick, and it looks like a De Kooning close up,' he says. 'I'm trying to not copy life, I want the paint to become a force of nature in itself. A waterfall close up is spray and sound and the feeling of this torrent pushing down, and it's only about 30ft away that you can tell it's a waterfall: mine work in the same way'.
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