Abd Kasha
Untitled
2023
Acrylic on canvas
145 x 145 cm
Abd Kasha (b. 1997) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Syria. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tishreen University in Latakia, Syria (2020), he began his career as a photographer but quickly expanded his artistic practice to include a range of media. His recent paintings, drawings, and sculptures reflect the use of expressionist figuration as a starting point for broader sociocultural explorations. This approach has characterized Syrian art for decades, which is deeply familiar to Kasha, whose father is the prominent Syrian sculptor Jamil Kasha. Abd, however, has forged a distinct path, with works that affectively describe the challenges of navigating war and conflict with biting social commentary. Puppets serve as stand-ins for human models and are depicted in desolate scenes that are at once timeless and haunting. Combining riotous brushwork with a warm palette that accentuates his two and three-dimensional figures, he unearths the sense of anxiety that underwrites an unstable environment and the psychic weight of loss and destruction that taints everyday life under such precarious conditions.
Kasha has participated in solo and collective exhibitions throughout the Arab World, including the National Center for Visual Arts at the University of Damascus. His works are held in private collections in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.
