Gazwan Moussa
We are going to have a short introduction of our Syria Artist, Gazwan Moussa for this month. He was born and lived most of his life in Syria 1980. He thinks his art talent accompanied him since he was a child.
He worked many works of art using a variety of elements such as skin, silver, iron, and wood; however, he finally found his identity and passion in the copper art.
He has stayed numerous art exhibitions in different cities and won his paintings on the desirability of many people and important figures in Syria. Ideas for his paintings are usually derived from people who live around him, societies, cultures, nature, and something he feels beautiful.
He said this kind of art is very old and has a long heritage in the Middle East, which is subject to be renewed and to be seen as a modern version.
He makes his paintings of copper, wood and other chemical factors to give them color and gloss due to their corrosion of interaction with the outside air.
Who is JoyRoute's Artist?
Johan Wahlstrom
Johan Wahlstrom is JoyRoute's artist working in Spain.
He enjoys living in the south of Spain where the climate is very comfortable/warm most of the year and to be in the middle of a great culture heritage that spans over a very long time.
He introduced some merits from working in Spain.
He has exhibited in solo, duo, and group shows in many cities in Spain like Barcelona, Madrid, Vigo, Majorca etc. He has been part of an exhibition where there was a mix of few new emerging artists like himself and together with art by Picasso, Miro, Tapies and few other very famous Spanish artists. He was part of a big art installation in Malaga 3 years ago about the "Death Penalty" and it was only up for display over one weekend and they had more than 20,000 visitors.
He works 5 days a week in my studio (except when he travels to his exhibitions). He started to paint my series "It's Boring to Die" late 2010 and have not stopped creating new paintings in the theme "It's Boring to Die." It is also the name of all exhibitions he has done since 2011 and has booked so far until 2015. He plans to continue to use this theme for a long period of time.
The title, "It's Boring to Die," is a series that embodies acrylic and ink canvases filled with graphic, naif heads and torsos in a dark, limited palette of greys, blues, black and blood-red accents. The provocative titled pieces are social critiques, reflecting the artists' grappling with a world of extreme polarities.
Lastly, he gave us his message in which he would like to convey to the public through his works.
He paints to keep himself insane.
He paints anxiety to be calm.
He paints war to have peace.
He paints sadness to be happy.
He paints the dark to be in the light.
He paints death to be alive.
He paints a story so that he doesn’t have to tell a story.
