Q0DE Agency, an agency that represents a curation of talented artists from around the Middle East, is participating in the London Global Arts Fair. And they are planning on focusing exclusively on the work of one talented young Syrian artist: Mohammad Zaza.
Zaza, who now works in Turkey, works with acrylic mainly but also mixes in forms of collage, tempera, various glues and even charcoal, creating a texturally-rich and visually pleasing affect on the canvas, with imagery that takes a few moments for your mind to decipher. Using large-scale canvases, Zaza plays with concepts of composition and creates pieces that give the eye places to wander. Though his work is semi-abstract, it is emotionally-telling and visually curious. Having also worked in video production, Zaza’s work is also inspired partially by visual movement and musical collaborations. He is also moved by technology and innovative inventions, saying that “In the beginning…these objects derived from the need to fulfill specific needs for subsistence: all the mechanisms needed to serve a body: to eat, to grow and to survive. Now, however, our needs are more complex, and technology has diversified to meet more and more specific requirements. However, for each new discovery there will inevitably be a whole slew of mistakes and abortive attempts. These prototypes become a sea of refuge, clouding human creativity and blocking the path to innovation. The more we create, the more we are influenced by what came before, and people are unable to envisage new and unencumbered forms. Thus society now finds itself at an impasse, a “break in the transmission of the machine from one age to the next.”
Zaza attended Aleppo University and graduated with a degree in Fine and Applied Arts in 2010. This exhibition will be the first for Zaza outside of the Middle East, as is a great opportunity for this young talent to venture into the international art scene.
For more information: Visit Q0DE Agency’s official website to peruse some of the other talents they curate, and for tickets to the London Global Arts Fair, go here. See more of Mohammed Zaza’s work here.