Kevork Mourad: Immortal City

The Rose presents Immortal City, an exhibition of new paintings by acclaimed Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad (b. Syria, 1970), known for paintings made spontaneously in collaboration with composers, dancers, and musicians. Mourad performs in his art both a vital act of remembering and a defiant demonstration of creativity in the face of tragedy, mediating the experience of trauma through finely wrought, abstracted imagery that celebrates his rich cultural heritage while mourning its loss. Mourad’s paintings ask viewers to stop and bear witness, to see the fragments of a rich culture destroyed – textiles, ancient fractured walls, Arabic calligraphy, and bodies crushed by war. Working almost solely in black paint and incorporating printmaking techniques as well as his own unique method of applying paint through sweeping gesture, Mourad produces paintings that are fantastical, theatrical, and lyrical.

On November 4th, Mourad will perform live painting during Home Within, an ongoing reflection on the Syrian revolution and its aftermath, with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh. 

Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation