Nasser Almulhim | Aug, 01,2022

Tabari Artspace is delighted to present Memory In Motion an online solo exhibition of Saudi Arabian abstract painter, Nasser Almulhim.

Almulhim’s colour-fuelled canvases draw influence from multiple movements in art history from Modernism to Abstract Expressionism. Having overcome personal trauma and mental health issues through artmaking, Almulhim renders himself vulnerable through his paintings. His practice assumes a playful and intuitive approach, doubling as a therapeutic act that opens what the artist understands to be: “The gate of self-healing.” It’s art that forms an antidote, that ushers the audience into the most intimate of emotional sequences and exposes personal memories.

The past cannot help but imprint upon the present; our current perspectives are always informed by our repertoire of memory. Memory In Motion unpacks this ever-shifting yet unwavering bond. Icons absorbed from the artist’s youth materialise in certain works. Drops of candle wax slither onto the table in Almulhim’s grandmother’s kitchen while plates of fresh watermelon embody a return to springtime in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s.

Having overcome personal trauma and mental health issues through artmaking, Almulhim renders himself vulnerable through his paintings.

More recent works have been selected from the artist’s Shadow Work series. Embarking upon a journey to heal the mind, Almulhim explored and drew from various schools of thought that span Eastern mysticism and spiritual practices - from Sufism to Buddhism -, as well as western philosophies and approaches to psychoanalysis, particularly the Jungian approach.

Almulhim mines the perspectives of Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung, specifically, his reflections on Shadow Work. In The Philosophical Tree (1945), Jung asserts that: ‘One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.’

Like Jung, Almulhim understands the shadow as a subliminal self hidden within. The shadow is that which is deemed profane by society, but by integrating the shadow into the self one can transcend into a state of wholeness. This series, Shadow Work, is an attempt to tackle both the shadow and the light in Almulhim’s world while negotiating and exploring complex connections between spirituality, emotion and cognitive processes.

Almulhim’s abstract forms are an effort to make sense of the flows of feelings and emotions which move through the mind. Inspired by the psychological impact that certain colours can stimulate in the observer, Almulhim constructs his compositions using a palette of bold and sometimes jarring colours with the intention that they might unleash intense emotion from the viewer. While Almulhim’s paintings might be understood as an internal investigation and process of healing, the artist shies away from immersion in individualism, rather than getting lost in his own reality tunnel he seeks to establish a connection with the viewer. Almulhim hopes that his art might form bonds and raise a collective consciousness among those who have endured similar battles with their mental health.

"The past cannot help but imprint upon the present; our current perspectives are always informed by our repertoire of memories."

B. Riyadh, 1988

Nasser Almulhim is a painter and sculptor based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida.

Utilising a highly saturated palette, absorbed from the Abstract Expressionism movement, Almulhim meditates upon the interaction between geometric and organic forms and their connection to the human psyche. His practice assumes a playful and intuitive approach to art-making, doubling as a therapeutic act that opens what the artist understands to be: “The gate of self-healing.” His work materialises his inner imagination, transposing it into two- and three-dimensional forms. The artist employs various methods to establish a spiritual healing process between inner energy and universal power. A principal theme within Nasser’s practice is the relationship between spirituality and mental processes, and the visual representation of this bond. He’s interested in the immediate impact of forms and colours and how their unification might establish rhythmic energies and speak of inner emotions.
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