Reign Marks

Reign Marks painting series exhibited in Blues For Allah at Heskin Contemporary, New York 2014. The exhibition title, Blues For Allah was borrowed from the 1975 Grateful Dead album honoring the progressive, democratically inclined King Faisal of Saudi Arabia—also a Grateful Dead fan—who was murdered in that same year.

The Reign Marks painting series links patterns of untraceable cultural origin into fragmented reflections on nationalist, spiritual and psychedelic quests inherent in the world’s globalized cacophony of cultures and religions.

The works’ titles embrace a wide range of references: Blue Cheer, evokes a 60’s synthesis of LSD and New Age spirituality. In Day Dream Believer (The Monkees), Wall of Sound (Phil Spector), and White Rabbit Alice (Lewis Carroll and Grace Slick) a supersaturated palette of neon contrasts and day-glos pushes the boundaries of taste that are so important to cultural status quo.

As the Arab World continues to reel back and forth on its seismic journey of political, religious and social reform. The Reign Marks series subvert the timeless tropes of architecture, design and decoration to reach a contemporary visual language verging on simple beauty, yet flirting with the desire and unrest that fuel change.