Basel Dahman

Artist Statement:

I am a Syrian artist who witnessed firsthand the casualties of the Syrian Civil War. I use my artwork to capture the immense emotions felt while living in war-torn Syria. 

I graduated from the Painting and Drawing Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tishreen University in Latakia, Syria, in 2018. In 2019, I left Syria for Egypt in hopes of growing as an artist. I currently live and work in Cairo, Egypt. 

My artwork is a combination of expressionism, figurativism with an abstract tone. My primary focus is the human body and human emotion. Through my artwork, I capture intense emotions felt by the Syrian people during the war that are otherwise suppressed due to the state of oppression that they live in. 

I work with oil colors, acrylic colors, pencils, and charcoal and incorporate mixed media. My use of white and black colors brings to light the contrast of emotion and themes in my paintings, with white representing innocence, hope, and peace and black representing despair, destruction, and oppression. Each paint stroke intensifies the meaning of the painting, adds dimension, demonstrates the beauty of the color values, and brings to life emotion in my paintings.

Education:

2018 Bachelor of Fine Arts – Painting and Drawing Department of the 
Faculty of Fine Arts at Tishreen University in Latakia, Syria.

Exhibitions:

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 Come Together, Abbey Road Gallery & Cafe, Latakia, Syria.
2018 The Guilty Face, Al Hekmieh Gallery, Latakia, Syria.
2017 In The Deep, Tajalliyat Gallery, Damascus, Syria.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018 The Annual Fall (The Syrian Art Days 2018), Khan As'ad Pasha al-|Azm, Damascus, Syria.
2017 Candelabra 4, Abbey Road Gallery & Cafe, Latakia, Syria.
2016 Candelabra 3, Abbey Road Gallery & Cafe, Latakia, Syria.
2016 Candelabra 2, Abbey Road Gallery & Cafe, Latakia, Syria.

Artistic Influences:

Pablo Picasso, Caravaggio, Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, Lucian Freud, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt.