A solo show at Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE (Nov 8, 2018 – Jan 10, 2019) Solo Show ‘Beauty Blocked My View’ by Syrian-Danish Artist Zhivago Duncan

In this series titled, Beauty Blocked My View, Zhivago Duncan delves into the void of a missing link within his ancestral DNA. As the only member of his family born in the United States he has always felt a longing to visit Syria, to see the land of his ancestors and to visit such an culturally important country, as one of the birthplaces of Ancient civilization. While Duncan felt this sense of longing, his family, whose memories of Syria had become shrouded in trauma, did not. His first attempt to return to Syria in 2011 with his mother would not come to pass due to the start of the Arab Spring and the unfolding war. Another attempt in 2014 was also unrealized, when Duncan attempted to cross the border from Jordan, just to place a foot into Syria, but was stopped by the military forces protecting Jordan.

Zhivago Duncan, Sumerian Sunsets, 2018 / Courtesy of Meem Gallery and the artist

Coming to terms with the idea that he will never experience Syria as it truly was, Duncan depicts abstracted, ethereal landscapes that refer to imaginary scenarios of the land, and the beginning of written history. Through a web of interconnected quotes, poetic prophecies and deities, taken from Akkadian and Sumerian language and culture, Duncan creates a world in which he bonds with his ancestral heritage, creating a connection between his personal physicality and a metaphysical personification of a long lost land.

Zhivago Duncan / Courtesy of Meem Gallery and the artist

As an artist working in a huge variety of media, Duncan now presents this surprising new body of work using the Indonesian method of batik. Batik has a long cultural history throughout the Middle East and Asia and is most developed in Indonesia, where batik has a long history of intricate designs that represent a person’s marital and societal status and their religious preference. A cloth that is usually reserved for clothing and accessories, Duncan has re-purposed this method in the form of canvas, to create painting.

Batik as an art form has a real sense of the personal; the maker of a batik cloth represents themselves within it. Duncan’s oeuvre has always included a sense of autobiographical quality, from his concepts and references points to the descriptive imagery he uses. In Beauty Blocked My View, the autobiographical nature of Duncan’s work is represented in a conceptually focused abstraction, creating landscapes that pulsate with a transcendental quality.

Zhivago Duncan / Courtesy of Meem Gallery and the artist

Zhivago Duncan

Zhivago Duncan was born in 1980, Indiana, USA. Zhivago Duncan is a half Syrian, half Danish, Mexico based, multi-media artist. Graduating from The Chelsea College of Art in 2007, Duncan strives to challenge his artistic practice by testing his creative control. By diversifying his materials, he utilises both traditional and non-traditional media, resulting in a body of work that includes large-scale site-specific installation, printmaking and photography, performance art, sculpture and painting.

Solo exhibitions include, Never But Always, Meem Gallery, Dubai, 2016; Constant Interloper, Livingston Gallery, The Hague, 2016; Papillon, Galleria Poggiali e Forconi, Florence, 2012. Group exhibitions include, The Difference Between Sunrise and Sunset, STP Projects, Tuessling, 2016; NGORONGORO, Artist Weekend, Berlin European Contemporary Art, Museum of Sculpture, Qingdao, 2015; Opening Show, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger, Berlin, 2013; 35th Anniversary Group Show, Frederick Snizer Gallery, Miami, 2012; Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art from Germany, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2011; In Fifteen Minutes Everyone will be Famous, Tape Modern, Berlin, 2010

Duncan’s works have been collected by the Barjeel Art Foundation, The Saatchi Collection and the Perez Art Museum, Miami. In 2012 Duncan received the XLVIII Premio internazional Le Muse, Florence.

To complement the solo exhibition held at Meem Gallery, the gallery will exhibit a selection paintings and works on paper at Abu Dhabi Art. Two large scale paintings from the Never But Always series will be exhibited, alongside a selection of works on paper created in Berlin and Mexico.