Omran Younes
Untitled from Cactus series
2020
Mixed media on canvas
98 x 68 cm
Since the late 1990s, Syrian painter Omran Younes (b. 1971) has probed the psychological undercurrents of expressionist painting, building on a rich tradition of Syrian modernism that began when artists such as Fateh Moudarres used painting as a way of visualizing the unseen but palpable shifts in Syrian society in the mid twentieth century. Younes is steeped in this history yet remains committed to ongoing experimentation, actively pushing the boundaries of painting in search of ways to communicate the complexity of the human psyche and the physical responses that reveal its fragility, such as instances of fear and pain. This emphasis on the human condition makes works that were inspired by his surroundings in war-torn Syria categorically universal, resonating with viewers from the U.S. to the Middle East. His rich palette, characterized by shades of vermilion, sunburnt orange, lapis, and black, white, and grey, contrasts the warmth of the earth with the vastness of the sky, grounding his scenes in reality. In his most recent works, distinguished by thick, loose brushwork, prickly pear cacti stand in for the anonymous figures of earlier works, anthropomorphic representations of weathered yet resilient protagonists.
