Artist Feature: Karim Hamid
"...today's common, and confused, view of the female form…"
In previous features I talked about the process of painting where the finished piece is “unfinished.” (See Artist Feature: Colin Chillag.) When I first discovered the work of Karim Hamid I thought it was a similar process as his work has that similar raw and exposed aesthetic. I learned differently however, he composes a complete painting and then destroys parts of it, over and over and over again, leaving traces of the original painting behind. Some of us artists use similar destroying techniques as a sort of self sabotage but Hamid has a purpose in mind the whole time.
From the Artist:
“I like to describe my method of working as akin to a type of Psychic Archaeology. Having been trained academically to draw and paint the human figure, I find it now interesting to negate that learned talent. In regards to the female figure, I am most interested in the art historical focus on the objectification of the female form and personality. Using this as my starting point, I try to engage today’s common, and confused, view of the female form through the lens of popular culture. Then, turning it on its head, so to speak, I play with that ‘language’ to see what new things might be revealed in it.”
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Karim Hamid (1966) was born in Los Angeles, CA to a British mother and Palestinian father. Moving quite a bit between England and the USA, he received his BFA in 1990 from Sussex University and his MFA in 1994 from the San Francisco Art Institute. Over the past 25 years, Hamid has held several solo and group exhibitions throughout the world. He currently resides on the East Coast of the USA near to NYC. Travel and learning are important parts to his world view.