‘E Cafe’ acrylic on canvas 50 x 60cm available via blue thumb or direct from the artist É Café by Zeina Kara Ali
Currently living in Sydney, Australia, artist Zeina Kara-Ali was born and raised in Lebanon. Kara-Ali’s work is intrinsically linked to her childhood, with memories of the architecture and culture of Lebanon informing her current body of work.
The artist’s exposure to the vibrant aesthetic nature of African and Middle Eastern culture is evident in her work. Her innate affinity with the traditional facets of beauty i.e. colour, symmetry and precision are adeptly applied and consistent throughout her body of work. It is this profound connection with aesthetic beauty that will solidify the foundation of her oeuvre moving forward and place her in good stead to continue to develop her idiosyncratic style.
Kara-Ali’s style can be classified as graphical expressionism due to her vivid use of colour and concise use of line to create form, resulting in an expressive purity of the elements of her subjects. Indeed, there is an ordinal quality in her depictions that attests to the analytical lens of the artist. She observes and accrues the pervasive details of her subjects that speak to her personally, integrating them with her own story to produce her own condensed interpretation of the beauty in what she sees.
Kara-Ali’s current standing shows an evident consideration and development for shadow and reflection; the properties of light, in her work. She applies these with an apparent spontaneity that could veer into the disorderly if it weren’t for the harmony the artist elicits in the viewer. It is subtly done indicating a proficiency or natural inclination to the visceral evocation of light and this facet of imagery. Kara-Ali enjoys experimenting with colour in her practice and this amalgamation of hue and saturation is emerging in her style and shows promise as an area where she can evolve and extend her technical skill.
Memory, beauty and culture are hallmarks of the artist’s story. Her artistic voice is underpinned by a deep affinity with spectacle; to speak of the aliveness of ordinary experiences and all the visual delight they have to offer.
Kara-Ali has a penchant for still-life and landscape work. Although figurative and portraiture work has formed part of her artistic stable, she currently demonstrates her connection with life through the personification of objects and architecture. Her current direction “(reflects her) feelings of nostalgia towards (her) home country, Lebanon. (Where she) began to paint the beauty of Lebanese traditional houses including (her) childhood home. The Lebanese traditional houses are a world of sunshine and light, of colour both subtle and vivid, of authenticity and legacy.” The artist demonstrates a strengthening connection to her own story which is evidently correlated with the burgeoning strengthening of her own style.
Critique
The practical and theoretical history of the artists experience indicate that technical execution of colour and form will likely refine and mature organically. Her aesthetic voice and style are quite strong. It is my opinion that honing the narrative elements of Kara-Ali’s work as-it-is at present would serve her goal of being recognised as an artist and connecting with audiences.
Zeina-Kara Ali is able to locate and articulate the imagery she intends to imbue in her story well. She knows what it is she desires to share with her audience, however that intangible aspect of her story, the emotion that is rife within her when she speaks, is not yet fully translating in her work and appears to be the subsequent focus for the artist. This is the precipice the artist currently teeters on and something that could be exploited in the meditative methodology she employs.
The process of her art has therapeutic benefit for the artist as it does for many. However, rather than rigorously researching and planning her vision and then applying that vision meditatively as means to become present and escape the busyness of her mind, the artist could experiment with a practice led methodology consciously incorporating meditation to allow the sub-conscious aspect of her practice to conjure imagery inadvertently, for the ultimate enrichment of her story and as such deepen connections with her audience.