Reception: Karim B Hamid: Saturn Returns

November 30, 2024–January 26, 2025
Reception: Saturday, December 14th, 6-9 pm
Hours: Regular gallery hours 12-5 PM from 11/30-12/15 & 1/11-1/26.
-Please note break over holidays:
By appt: weekdays & between 12/16/24 -1/10/25

Born in the U.S. and largely raised in Los Angeles, CA, and to some extent in the Southern Coast of England, Hamid is the son of first-generation immigrants. His Palestinian father settled in the USA and established himself as a liquor merchant. His mother was a British-trained nurse who immigrated from Great Britain post-World World II. With such mixed heritage, Hamid knows firsthand what it is like to experience that sense of ‘otherness’ that is commonly associated with first-time immigrants. This “otherness” is something that has driven him in his work and underscores the sensibilities that drive his aesthetics.

Indeed, his work explores the very essence of observation – both the observer and the observed and what happens in between that psychic space. His process can even relate to therapy, he says. “You can’t just analyze someone from a linear perspective. You have to come in from all angles, all perspectives.” This multidimensional perspective is important in understanding the fullness of anything or anyone, Hamid believes. He is unhurried in this method. His observations, or compositions, are developed with a slow application as he paints and destroys and paints again, rebuilding his work layer by layer. Everything that was before remains visible, waiting to be discovered by the patient viewer.

Hamid encompasses the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism: Brahma (creator) & Shiva (destroyer), and Vishnu (the preserver). His destructive drive is fueled by his desire to untether from ego and he walks away only after accepting the work complete, and therefore deserving of preservation.