Thameur Mejri; Tunisian 1982-; Two Figures at War ,2016
Provenance : Jack Bell Gallery, London, 2017. Private Collection.
Exhibited : Jack Bell Gallery, London, Before You Split the Ground, 7 to 21 April 2017.
Literature :
Notes : Thameur Mejri's work can be located within the geopolitical context of his native Tunisia, which, by the time he was twenty years old, was rocked by the so-called 'war on terror' that occurred with the invasion of Iraq in 2003.1 Less than a decade later, Mejri found himself confronted with the effects of the Arab Spring that gave rise to a wave of Islamic extremism across the region. Such conceptual traces of violence and aggression are not far away in Mejri's paintings, which aim to 'capture the chaos of the breakdown of human order'.2 Yet, whilst the body remains central to Mejri's representational concerns, his nuance lies in the way that abstraction is used to communicate the pressures that lead to a fractured sense of being in contemporary Tunisian society. In so doing, his canvases become 'the space where the physical and psychological dimensions of that conflict is projected'.3 1. Katrina Kufer (2018) Tunisian Artist Thameur Mejri's Inevitable Journey , online, https://www.harpersbazaararabia.com/art/artists/meet-tunisian-artist-thameurmejri [9 December 2018]. 2. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi (2017) 'Invitation into the Depiction of Violence', in Thameur Mejri, Heretic Spaces, Dubai: Elmarsa Gallery, page 7. 3. Thameur Mejri (2017) Heretic Spaces, Dubai: Elmarsa Gallery, page 29. This lot has been selected by Curatorial Voice: Azza Satti.
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