Acrylics on plywood
In bright, solid planes of acrylics on
plywood, Ymane Chabi-Gara’s paintings display characters, alone or in small groups,
in worlds and situations mirroring their interiority. Domestic spaces and
industrial wastelands support the narration, and the body is a merging point
where all experiences end up and find meaning. Lately, she has been
representing herself on the canvases. “This staging of myself relates with the
singularity of intimacy and loneliness as an archaic, universal feeling,” she
explains. The “Hikikomori” series evokes the Japanese youth that makes the
radical choice to cut itself off society for a while. Using documentary images
as references, the artist paints herself in their environments, bedrooms packed
with things – books, video games, rubbish – like fortresses...
