The Mahler Fine Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, will present the exhibition Common Threads March 6 through April 4. Featuring the paintings of Alia El-Bermani and Pete Sack, two North Carolina artists, the exhibition explores how “the artists use the portrait to reveal introspective stories about the complexity of what it is to be human, as well as to try to fully understand and deeply connect with another.”
Alia El-Bermani, Perceptions, oil on aluminum panel, 36 x 60"
Although they paint in different styles, each artist explores how our perceptions of others are often cloudy. Sack says, “The masking or obscuring of faces stems from my belief that we never 100 percent know someone or what they are thinking. This includes our own selves and isn’t necessarily devious or a bad thing. So a true portrait of someone has to be obscured in order to reveal the true nature of self.” El-Bermani comments on the windows in her painting Perceptions. She says, “I became fascinated by how the windows distorted and fogged the truth within their panes.”
Alia El-Bermani, Single Thread, oil on aluminum panel, 24 x 24"
The suspended windows in her paintings “became important symbols about my search for connection” to her mother who died last year. “Over time,” she says, “that symbolism expanded to include metaphors about our varying perspectives. This multiplicity is shown in the painting Perceptions, describing how for one individual there can be multiple truths that simultaneously coexist. It was important for me to paint this work from direct observation to utilize the many amassed moments necessary to complete this work to express how my own visual perceptions shift, assemble and sometimes retreat.”
While El-Bermani paints from direct observation, Sack starts each piece “with little input on the end result, choosing rather for the piece to dictate where it wants to go. I choose faces that tell an interesting story. Once the painting is complete and the dust has settled, I then figure out the meaning to me. The way that I paint, a tightly rendered watercolor underpainting, with a loose/gestural acrylic or oil painting allows me to achieve my goal.”
Pete Sack, Wherever I go, you still follow, oil, watercolor and image transfer on paper, 36 x 36"
The fully realized watercolor beneath the surface of Wherever I go, you still follow suggests that a fully realized person lies behind the various facades we apply to ourselves in clothing and expressions to imply either a truth or a fantasy.
El-Bermani suggests we can see the confidently nude figure as she is, through a glass darkly or as a reflection of our own preconceptions. —
The Mahler Fine Art
228 Fayetteville Street • Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 896-7503 • www.themahlerfineart.com
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