< Previous30 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 Suzi sits in her in-house art studio featuring Rebirth (2020) in the background HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3001/10/2020 05:35:13 PM31 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 rench novelist Émile Zola once said, “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” Since her childhood, Suzi Fadel Nassif was drawn to the world of art – her notebooks were fi lled with sketches, artistic fonts and bold colours. “I discovered art in all aspects of life,” she says. “I discovered myself through art.” Growing up, Suzi found herself in many different careers, well aware of the void in her life restlessly haunting her. That is until the day she stumbled upon a paint bucket and irrevocably, the rest was history. Around the age of six, Suzi resorted to art as a means of self- expression, depicting life in her native country Lebanon – her home, the lush green garden, the fl ying birds and warm sunshine. “I can still feel that breeze and smell spring in the air,” she recalls. “I seldom journey back in time and draw days of innocence like in that same drawing.” Confl icts such as the 2006 Lebanon war sparked daunting dismay in the artist, later reinforcing her greater purpose, which always stared back at her in her mind’s eye. “I found myself painting aimlessly trying to solve life’s mystery on a canvas,” says Suzi. “Once I found myself through my art, I was a free bird again, out of my cage and into a wild journey of inspiration and expression. I had so much to say, but words never described what I felt; it was my art that was worth a thousand words.” The ARTIST Reviving the idiosyncrasies of late legends such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol, Suzi’s work delicately encapsulates the tales of these masters with her own surrealist twist. In February 2015, the artist presented her inaugural solo exhibition at Authentique Art & Design gallery in Dubai. “My work had refl ected all the comedies and tragedies of daily life encounters and I wanted to express it out loud,” she recounts. “Art transported me to a different dimension, granting me ultimate freedom to speak through colours, textures, faces and fi gures. When I paint, I enter a trance, I give my all to art, and art gives me back everything in return.” Indeed, when she paints, her soul is exposed and senses are elevated. The act is a relationship of passion and intimacy, one where she falls in love and there are no limitations. “This is the beauty of it, it keeps you alive and breathing – it’s an infi nite heartbeat.” Suzi’s work has been showcased globally at notable art events and exhibitions in France, Russia, Japan, Italy, England, USA, Lebanon, Portugal and the UAE. She is also the recipient of the 2015 Vera Award (Lisbon), the 2015 UNICEF Award (Palermo), the 2015 Leonardo Da Vinci Award (Florence), the 2016 Casanova Arts Lover Award (Venice) and the 2017 Certifi cate of Excellence, Palm Award (Munich). Dalí, Suzi’s very fi rst muse, beautifully consumed her with his reality-twisting works. “I lived through his paintings and even copied the mind-bending artworks,” she admits. “Dalí inspired me to think outside the box; he simply had a magnetic infl uence on my Above: Suzi Fadel Nassif. Fridalism. 2018. Acrylic with gold leaf on canvas. 80x80cm. Courtesy of the artist HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3101/10/2020 05:35:21 PM32 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 An interior view of Suzi’s living room featuring her own pillows and artworks including Lina in Wonderland (2019), Sophia’s World (2019) and candle sculpture HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3201/10/2020 05:35:28 PM33 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 “ I B E L I E V E I N T H E GR E A T PO W E R T H A T CO M E S F R O M A W O M A N’ S FR A G I L I T Y; FR O M H E R C H A R M , H E R D E T E R M I N A T I O N A N D A L L HE R F A S C IN A T IN G P A R A D O X E S ” HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3301/10/2020 05:35:35 PM34 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 brushstrokes. I portrayed Dalí in all his states, visited his museums around the world and even had a taste of his life at his home in Cadaqués, Catalonia.” Not long after, Suzi found herself mesmerised by Picasso, Warhol, Khalil Gibran, Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt. Latin cultures also had a substantial infl uence on the artist’s work. “A trip to Cuba made me realise that a major part of myself belonged to their world,” she explains. “I explored their heritage and searched for every possible medium and material in their history.” In the process, Suzi fell in love with the Mexican queen of pain and passion, Kahlo, a restless artist who defi ned herself with no limitations and no apologies. “I am happily abducted by such powerful icons who created a golden history in different areas of time.” Citing Aristotle, Suzi believes every work of art must have a beginning, a middle and an end; it must be unifi ed and hang together as one lyrical entity fueled by meaning. “I see art as a magical result of my feelings, emotions, experiences and beliefs; the outer manifestation of an inner state. It is a collective result of what I consciously and subconsciously grasp on a daily basis using all my senses.” As an artist in today’s world where tragedy seems to prevail, Suzi is perpetually in search of solace through art, something enduringly beautiful. “While the world is busy with this titanic shift that has caused chaos and tragedy, my home country has been spiralling into an abyss of war and crisis that left people drained emotionally and physically,” she sighs. “After months of revolution and after an economic crisis that left families under poverty, we have witnessed the apocalypse that left our beautiful Beirut under rubble. Being far has also taken a toll on my already bruised soul, leaving me more than ever motivated to offer help. My Beirut, our beautiful capital, I never get tired of hearing how people dream of visiting this magical city and how people long to see it again in peace.” A fi ghter like Kahlo, Suzi has converted her pain into beauty; the heartbreaking events and seemingly endless rollercoaster of hope and terror inspired a new work art, a work of hope, which will be auctioned online and for a charity event in October 2020. All proceeds will be donated to various NGOs including Theater Relief Group, an initiative launched to provide relief to those affected by the Beirut explosion on 4 August. Aptly entitled Rebirth (2020), the work represents the birth of a happier Beirut – a city without destruction and confl ict, a city of hope and love, just waiting for the right time to arrive. Painting has been Suzi’s saviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, a means to express her inner self and an all-consuming sweet escape from the anxieties of the physical realities. “After confronting all the challenges of this intense year, I am noticing a great shift in my style,” she says, underscoring that her work is shifting towards distortion; a style that for her, is driven by the unknown, the terror and the truth of our new world, as seen in her ongoing work Embrace (2020). She quotes Vincent van Gogh, “The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it.” The ARTIST From left: Suzi Fadel Nassif. La Boheme. 2018. Acrylic, gold and silver leaf on canvas. 170x130cm; Yara. 2019. Acrylic on canvas. 80x80cm “ W H E N I P A I N T , I E N T E R A T R A N C E . I GI V E M Y A L L TO A R T , A N D A R T GI V E S M E B A CK E V E R YT HIN G IN RE T U RN ” HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3401/10/2020 05:35:43 PM35 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 One of Suzi’s most notable paintings, Lina in Wonderland (2019), denotes the power that springs from a woman’s fragility; their escape from the taboos they have long been trapped in and from the cliché misconceptions overtime. The work depicts Fornasetti’s muse Lina Cavalieri, intertwined with Arlecchino, a character from the 16th century Italian comedy dell’arte. “Two mutually exclusive characters join forces in appearance and spirit to explore the unyielding forces of a shape-shifting woman driven by beauty and sin,” explains Suzi. “In form, Arlecchino is seen in his colourful diamond-shaped patches that are portrayed throughout the painting which perfectly fi ts Lina’s shifting personality, mood and emotions; she could easily fi t in that comedy as a natural Harlequin.” Two worlds collide into a vivid twirl of confl icting themes; adultery, jealousy, love, devotion and sin. “The sins that wrap everything in one symbol as old as time: the apple, seen as an offering in Lina’s hand.” Suzi’s moving works often note inspiration from infl uential female fi gures, capturing their glory and riveting tug-of-war with freedom and struggle. “I believe in the great power that comes from a woman’s Above: Suzi Fadel Nassif. Lina in Wonderland. 2019. Acrylic with gold leaf on canvas. 90x90cm. Courtesy of the artist HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3501/10/2020 05:35:54 PM36 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 IMA GES C OUR TES Y OF THE AR TIS T “ A RT S U R P A S S E S T I M E A N D T H E A R T I S T S T H A T C R E A T E D I T . I T B R I N G S P E O P L E TOGET H E R A N D M A K E S U S A L L R E A L IS E T H A T W E M A Y A L L CO M E F R O M D I F F E R E N T W A L K S O F L I F E , B U T T H E R E A R E SO M E T H I N G S T H A T A R E U N D E N I A B L Y CO M M O N TO A L L O F U S L I K E LO V E , P A I N , H A P P I N E SS A N D F R E E D O M . I T M A K E S U S T H I N K P R O F O U N D L Y , F E E L D E E P L Y A N D S P E A K LO U D L Y R A T H E R T H A N SA Y N O T H I N G A T A L L ” Suzi Fadel Nassif. The girl with cherry tear. 2015. Acrylic on canvas. 90x90cm. Courtesy of the artist HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3601/10/2020 05:36:03 PM37 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 fragility; from her charm, her determination and all her fascinating paradoxes.” Another work of note is Fridali (2015), brought to life after a visit to a Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Driven by an overwhelming desire to capture Kahlo and Dalí’s similarities and differences simultaneously, the artwork intertwines the duo through Dalí’s iconic moustache. “I painted all their differences, competition and connection through their facial expressions and mainly, [through] the connected unibrow and moustache, which describes the golden duality forever.” Viva la Frida (2020), a more recent work, portrays the continuous dance of death that twirled around Kahlo, and her restlessness in the face of adversity. After a tragic car accident, the late artist chillingly confessed to her young lover, Alejandro Gomez Arias, “Death dances around my bed at night”. “For Frida, life and death existed simultaneously,” says Suzi. “She understood death most intimately, as it was tangible every day. Frida has become a mesmerising symbolic image of the wounded and triumphant feminine: the feminine whose Clockwise from top left: Suzi Fadel Nassif. Fridali. 2015. Acrylic, gold and silver leaf on canvas. 150x130cm; Sophia’s World. 2019. Acrylic with gold leaf on canvas (collage). 100x70cm; Madame Marlene. 2019. Acrylic with gold leaf on canvas. 100x95cm; A view of Suzi’s studio featuring Rebirth (2020). Courtesy of the artist teacher is her indigenous culture and death.” Suzi’s work is evolving with time, refl ecting countless faces and reviving the tales of the old masters who defi ed stereotypes and marked eras. Her art is the offspring of inspiration and internal waves of time-specifi c emotions and realities. The brushstrokes exist to form an intimate bond with the viewer, through which the story is slowly and hauntingly revealed. “I will carry my stories just like Scheherazade; a storyteller of life in a contemporary art form, since every painting is a tale of people, society and time, the birth of a new unique chapter,” expresses Suzi. “Art surpasses time and the artists that created it. It brings people together and makes us all realise that we may all come from different walks of life, but there are some things that are undeniably common to all of us like love, pain, happiness and freedom. It makes us think profoundly, feel deeply and speak loudly rather than say nothing at all.” Suzi’s work pours colour into the darkness, fuses history with the present and sees no limitation in one’s imaginative realm. Art is Suzi’s life quest and yes, as Zola, she is here to live out loud. suzinassif.com The ARTIST HBA_040_28-37_The Artist_Suzi Fadel_11387196.indd 3701/10/2020 05:36:10 PMM A G I C From Pharrell Williams album covers to exhibitions in Italian museums, Hania Afi fi documents the life and art of Miami-based painter Jason Seife ARPET HBA_040_38-45_TheArtist_Jason Seife_11379181.indd 3801/10/2020 05:37:10 PM39 HarpersBazaarArabia.com/Culture/Art Autumn 2020 The ARTIST Facing page: Jason Seife. Chinese New Year. 2018. 33cmx33cm. Left: Jason Seife. Upcoming 2021 exhibition piece. Courtesy of the artist HBA_040_38-45_TheArtist_Jason Seife_11379181.indd 3901/10/2020 05:37:16 PMNext >