Vitality | Sculptures by Essam Darwich | The Art Lounge |
26 JANUARY – 27 MARCH 2014

Al Masar Gallery | The Art Lounge
Vitality
Sculptures by: Essam Darwich

OPENING | Sunday 26 January 2014 ​​ │7:00 PM – 9:00 PM​

The exhibition will continue through ​27 March 2014. The exhibition showcases the artist’s latest sculpture collection. Essam Darwich (b. 1970, Cairo, Egypt) is deemed one of the most prominent and promising names in the art of sculpture. His presence is strongly felt in many of the art portrait exhibitions, where his statue of Taha Hussein’s head and that of Saleh Selim, the Egyptian famous football star, have glittered. Darwich has been selected to participate in the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, in which he presented several works of art, made of callous materials in a bold and creative manner. He has been selected by the famous artist Adam Henein to accomplish a huge work of sculpture to be placed in one of the most important squares in Qwna City. This work of art which rises to three meters and whose base extends to more than ten meters is deemed one of the most important accomplishments of Aswan Symposium. Since it reveals his profound understanding of how to employ sculptural masses, his aesthetic conception of the calculated engineering penetrations, that stir the emotions and distant vision along with profound awareness of light refraction, shadows and surface treatment.

Artist Statement:

Power & vitality are the secret of existence; I discovered during this experience that most of my works are all closely linked to the world of objects and vital shapes and that’s either through treating the shape from the outside or treating the shape & expressing its power from the inside. I found out that the features of the shapes at the beginning of their compositions seem to be growing like plants which I believe is the most difficult & powerful phase where the shape is still struggling to express its power which is the sculptor’s main goal that he/she seeks & wishes to fulfill with simplicity & to me it represents true value.

In this experience & in this exhibition, I am trying to work on the value of the shape in a direct way without any mediums or introductions since the vital body is the inspiration, the source & the purpose & it will be a tool we can use to project on our own reality, our society and its ongoing problems in addition to the value of searching for the problems of the shape & its vitality.

I chose to work on parts of the human bodies & shapes of some grains like wheat, lentils, beans & others as I searched for the treatment used with these basic & primary shapes like the square shape, the round shape, the oval shape which are all the basics of the shape language & a true lesson from the Creator for all who are interested in this kind of language for reflection & foresight.

Essam Darwich, 2014