Nizar Sabour:

Born 1958 in Lattakia. Perhaps he is the best known avant-garde Sufi Expressionist in the Syrian art scene. His academic studies in Moscow gave him the opportunity to get to know the ritual atmosphere of the Orthodox churches. He was inspired by art in monasteries, by icons. Sabour's fund of folkloristic themes is very large. He draws metaphorical borrowings from the heritage of glass painting and from the life stories of knights and heroes of popular legends and sagas. His mythological archive seems to be inexhaustible, using "postmodern" means and methods: pasted pieces of wood on textile tableaux, the reuse of woodworking in mirror wings or the architectural-futuristic furnishing of prayer niches and altars. The exhibited works show how he mixes lifeless materials such as sand, soot-enriched earth and ash (symbol of death) in a complex way. His symbolic works realized with this mixed technique represent the central theme of the current catastrophe, which deserves the title: "The living ash" i.e. "The living death".

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By Dr. Asaad Arabi

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A word from Nizar:

"Art is not an amusing pastime, it's an attitude to life."

"The work "Watermelon": This fruit is popular in the East. This is reflected in the colour atmosphere of the painting presenting this fruit in an oriental way, as well as in the frame surrounding the open motif, reminiscent of oriental carpets and mosaics from the region. 

The work "Olive Bowl": Given the current Syrian events, I was looking for a topic that unites the Syrians: The olive tree, this sacred tree. Its history in the East goes back thousands of years, and the olive plate is on the table of all Syrians, the rich and the poor of all religions, cultures and nationalities! The work "Maaloula": The city that is famous for its proximity to the mountains, for its language that is still alive today. The language of Jesus Christ. Maaloula's history goes back almost ten thousand years and during these long centuries it remained unharmed... until 2014."