A Gush of Water Cleared The Land Opening & End of Year Party

The Running Horse is pleased to invite you to the vernissage of our final exhibition for the year 2011 and their annual end-o-year party.

A Gush of Water Cleared The Land Opening & End of Year Party is a group exhibition bringing together
Talar Aghbashian
Karen Kalou
Juan Fontanive
Laura Pharaon

A gush of water cleared the land is a group exhibition bringing together the works of Lebanese painter Talar Aghbashian, American fine artist Juan Fontanive, Lebanese photographer Karen Kalou and Lebanese fine artist Laura Pharaon.

A gush of water cleared the land is the closing exhibition of 2011, overlapping 2012; a sensory exhibition inspired from contemporary environmental traumas, and in reference to the symbolism of water from its mysticism to sub-aquatic eco- systems to a psychoanalytic exploration of dreams, and their inseparable association to art and life.

This exhibition showcases the latest works of some of these artists, and an interesting thematic update on their work. We introduce Talar Aghbashian’s work, displayed in the gallery in a large mosaic of her latest paintings that represent a new step in the artist’s technical approach going from a hyper realistic technique to a more liberated style. The eight water landscapes depict familiar scenes (the port of Byblos in Lebanon for example), or eerie surroundings, bridged sceneries, dark lakes, often inspired from sci-fi movies, in thick and textured earthy colors. Water, being the common ground of these works, is treated in a dark way easily alluding to mythology and dreamland. And from dreamland, we hit an agitated fluttering bird in Juan Fontanive’s Quicknesse, the only living representation in the exhibition. Quicknesse is a small constantly revolving ‘paper film’ structured like a Rolodex made with a multitude of hand watercolor Bristol animation cards rotating to create the effect of a flick-book animation. The bird hovers helpless, but the kinetics of the piece astounds and one remains drawn to this visual/audible experience.

In the whirlwind of Lebanese winter rainstorms, Karen Kalou, the gallery’s new Running Talent presented her solo show “The Rain Series”in April 2011, brings us a series of new photographs titled Post-Apocalyptic Scapes, a more violent yet poetic take on the previous series, reflecting a metaphorical state of being after unexpected heavy rainstorm. Washed out vivid colours, sky reduced to cold whites, the landscapes are imperceptible from sea or sky and only abandoned bright red and yellow plastic chairs, tables or parasols remain, brutally scattered on the pavement. Although quite straightforward, these photographs show the often-overlooked power of natural forces facing our more frivolous lives.

Introducing a new talent at The Running Horse, Laura Pharaon, graduate from Parsons, New York, explores “the transient nature of life and material things” that translates visually into “figures of dissolution”. Pharaon achieves powerful works by
using a broad palette of earthy and organic materials like paper, rags, gravel, coal, ashes, concrete, wax, ink paint and residues, to create strongly constructed pieces through texture and layering. In works like “Echo on Terra”, Pharaon refers to the resonance between the pattern formed by a spiral galaxy and the one distinguished in the work”. Process is a large part of her work, as it defines it, and “evokes visually the shape of struggle integrating land-like abstract structures.”

In tune with the festive season and in memory of family and friends who lost their battle against cancer, The Running Horse has collaborated with Lebanese jeweler Joanna Dah- dah to create limited edition bracelets that will be sold at the gallery in support of St Jude Children Hospital.