Call to AdvCall to Adventure-Khaled Matarenture

A new artistic adventure begins on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, at 19:00 at the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery! Call to Adventure by Khaled Matar!

"My name is Khaled Matar. I was born on October 5, 2001 in Romania, in Iasi. I liked to paint and draw since I was little, so, in the 9th grade, I moved to the graphics section of the Octav Băncilă art high school in Iasi, and I started to consider following art as a career. In high school, the teachers focused more on modern art, but I resonated more with realistic figurative art. I have always felt something special for the works of the old masters. I began to learn as much as possible on my own and discovered various books written by 19th century masters (eg The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing by Solomon J. Solomon - British painter, founding member of New English Art Club and Fellow of the Royal Academy), who guided me in my attempts to draw/paint realistically.

Also during high school, I discovered Joseph Campbell, researcher of myths and religions, American writer and orator, known for his works in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion, the one who wrote "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". in which he talks about the monomyth (the similar structure that we find in different stories). That book inspired me enormously. My project is called Call to Adventure, this being the first important stage in the monomyth, the one when the Hero receives a "magical" sign to start his adventure. I believe that in all people's lives stages of the Hero's journey can be found, and the message behind everything they do is an exhortation to face fate bravely."

Khaled Matar is fully committed to his project of recovering classical values. With selflessness and devotion, the artist follows, with every stroke of charcoal, pencil or brush, the course of his illustrious predecessors, and his leap in time is like the transcendence of the mythical hero he has chosen as a model. The figurative realist manner comes as a visceral counterweight to the digitization, abstraction and alienation of the increasingly virtual world in which we immerse ourselves. The humility with which he expresses himself in his works, the delicate, meticulously applied touches, the references to the art of the 19th century painting masters or to highly successful cinematographic themes, give each painting the fresh breath of an artist who is looking for his way.

Declared passionate about mythologies, be they millennial (Icarus) or products of the contemporary spirit and imagination (Frodo, Harry Potter), Khaled Matar defines spaces between pictorial reality, millimetric quotes from Titian, Vermeer or Chardin and the monomyth he proposed to go through it.

The monomyth is the cyclical journey made by the standard mythic hero. His concept is that of the hero, who ventures beyond the ordinary world into a world of wonder, where fabulous forces reside and where he, the hero, wins the battle to return with even greater power to do good. his peers. It is the very conception of life and art of Khaled Matar.

The exhibition Call to Adventure represents the illustration of the artist's first steps on the way to discovering the inner hero and confirming his artistic ideals.

From the apprentice, searching for meanings and ways of expression, to the creator who envisions himself becoming, Matar draws, paints following the directions of the famous Bargue or Solomon, but expresses his own emotions, offering us timeless sequences from the same infinite unfolding of humanity, snapshots of portraits beyond photography (Luna, Madking) or the semantic contradiction of static nature describing human flight (Symbols of Icarus).

The atmosphere that the artist proposes defines his self, the light, omnipresent, strongly contrasts with the shadows and enlivens the painting, life being the stake of his speech. Follower of realism in painting, Khaled Matar uses specific artistic means to bring us closer to his experiences and aspirations, in simple, clear compositions, but loaded with deep allegations and symbols. How the artist will evolve on such a difficult path of discovering the inner hero, he himself will answer us, through his future creations.

Thus, the Call to Adventure exhibition turns into a call and a declaration at the same time, in an emotional return to the roots, be they mythological or artistic, with the eye aiming to know the most mysterious angles of man, hero or god, simple living, mortal or creator , in battle with immortality. Revelation, atonement, superhuman, humility become parts of his artistic vocabulary transposed on canvas.

The aesthetic suppleness and visual force of his works, the complexity of the artistic message, the pictorial discourse akin to his conceptions of life and art define to the highest degree the works of Khaled Matar from the first exhibition of the fall, at the Rotenberg-Uzunov Gallery!

The exhibition is organized by the Rotenberg - Uzunov Gallery, one of the most important contemporary art galleries in Bucharest, and the Cultural Association for the Support of Fine Arts and can be visited between August 31, 2022 and September 11, 2022, from Monday to Friday, between 14 :30 -19:30.

Adina Rențea
Curator

President ASAF