Osama Al Rayyan Camping

For his first solo show at The Modern Institute, Osama Al Rayyan brings together a new suite of oil paintings on canvas and intimately scaled bronze sculptures. The paintings depict lone people or small groups, capturing a moment of ambiguous action. Their bodies and garments are richly rendered, and the paintings’ chromatically dense environments are key to their atmosphere – the air feels thick with an indefinable tension. The figures appear as if in the aftermath of an event, or else waiting for something to happen and simply attempting to pass time. There is a melancholy aspect to Al Rayyan’s various enigmatic scenes, and his figures often seem contemplative with eyes downcast. The head is also the focus of his bronzes and both show countenances with their eyes closed, as if at rest. While they share figurative concerns with his vivid paintings, their sombre and plain character stands in contrast to them.

In the studio, Al Rayyan works intuitively, allowing decisions around colour and form to emerge naturally, without the need of a self-imposed conceptual framework. His poetic works draw together imaginary elements, observational drawing and his real-world experiences, with compositions often developing directly on the canvas. Literature remains a key influence on his practice too. While not providing any direct references, for Al Rayyan twentieth century Latin American writing and specifically Magical Realism has provided a framework for understanding his merging of the ordinary with the fantastical or uncanny. The exhibition title itself provides a narrative framing for the works, suggesting themes of leisure and sociality and opening out ideas around temporary structures, shelter and rest.