Return Journeys

Synopsis

Return Journeys is a retrospective exhibition by Afaf Zurayk, curated by Sylvia Agémian and coordinated by Twig Collaborative. Held at Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon from January 18 to March 1, 2019.

About the Exhibition

Our work with abstract artist Afaf Zurayk would culminate in her retrospective exhibition, Return Journeys, that featured a selection of her work, as well as an eponymous monograph documenting the occasion. The monograph groups Afaf's drawings, paintings, and sculptures from 1978 to the present into three chapters (1978–2000, 2000–10, 2010–19), each of which is paired with a short prose by the artist, set against translucent paper, that allows the artwork to peak through. The design of the book is left minimal, and sober in order to help facilitate a direct engagement between the artwork and the reader. Furthermore, Return Journeys directly engages the intricate relationship of text and image, an overarching theme that has carried through Afaf's work over the past four decades, by juxtaposing the solidity of words that are printed on translucent paper, and the fluidity of images that are set within crisp white pages. "Return Journeys affords an immersive experience of slow attunement to the artist's distinct visual language. The book is rendered more exquisite still by the poetic texts Zurayk wrote in tandem with each series of works, which are here printed on paper vellum so that the words form a palimpsest with the tangled lines and somber colors behind them, as they lyrically address the artist's intimate, searching process." — Kareem Estefan