Artists

Yasmin Sliai

Press release

As part of her first solo exhibition in the gallery Haze of Belonging, Yasmin Sliai presents a series of recent paintings that explore our understanding of home, belonging, time, and memory. The exhibition continues the artist's ongoing investigations into the interconnected nature of these themes through experimentations with motive and patterns, form and colour. 

Using recognizable interiors such as a sofa, a window, a chair, or a rug, Sliai’s works often depict intimate portrayals of relations and homes. Yet, simultaneously, the paintings seem to evoke the underlying question of what home even means or is. Is home our closest relations: the bond between two sisters or is home a specific place: a house or a town? Is it waiting for something or someone?

Throughout Sliai’s practice there is a continuous attention to history, not only of places and people, but of materials, such as the coarsely structured fabric, jute - one of the oldest materials used for canvases throughout history - that is often visible as a backdrop against the careful overlays of colour. Using the heavily textured canvas, Sliai’s paintings instil in us a sensuous experience, almost compelling us to touch and feel the dry fabric. By letting the material speak for itself, she highlights the dense, yet transparent quality of the works. She reminds us of Tunisian architecture, the warm colours and motives that turn into patterns, as she generates her own new patterns that emerge as a form of code language, spanning across the various paintings in the exhibition.