Sarah-Athina Nahas

WORKS
  • Sarah-Athina Nahas, Worry embroidery (تطريز القل), 2022
    Sarah-Athina Nahas
    Worry embroidery (تطريز القل), 2022
    Mixed media on various types of stained fabrics
    117 x 78 cm
    Sarah-Athina Nahas, Worry embroidery (تطريز القل), 2022
    £ 9,000.00
  • Sarah-Athina Nahas, Untitled (Sundial), 2021
    Sarah-Athina Nahas
    Untitled (Sundial), 2021
    Acrylic, coloured inks and thread of various cotton fabrics
    82.6 x 103 cm
    Sarah-Athina Nahas, Untitled (Sundial), 2021
    £ 9,800.00
  • Sarah-Athina Nahas, Keep your heart safe, 2019
    Sarah-Athina Nahas
    Keep your heart safe, 2019
    Pen, acrylic and crochet on raw cotton canvas,
    57 x 23 cm
    Sarah-Athina Nahas, Keep your heart safe, 2019
    £ 3,100.00
OVERVIEW
The need for fluidity has been ever-present in my mind lately. We talk about fluid genders, fluid identities, fluid bodies… but also bodily fluids. I find these two interesting when juxtaposed. Fluidity as something to be celebrated, bodily fluids as something to be concealed. So it only felt natural that “fluidity", both in a metaphorical and literal way, has hugely informed my practice. I abandoned the fixed nature of the stretcher with its rigid structure and instead opted for supple fabrics that refuse to be stapled down. They embrace the folds and flaws and sway at every passing breeze. Like a breathing organism, it reacts to its environment.
Stretchers offer the comfort of something that has already been done, a stable ground, Lately, I enjoy not knowing. I embrace the unfamiliar. While in the studio one day a question popped into my mind: Do we ever plan our thoughts? Silly question first thought, but… taken in their rawest form, thoughts are like an unstoppable disordered flow. Often unexpected and surprising. It is an uninterrupted flow, like our blood from head to toe. 
The surfaces of my works, with their tiny little weaving holes, like tiny little pores, act like skins. Unprimed and porous, they absorb what I allow to escape. They absorb the literal fluids, but also the angst that comes with living. I see my fabrics as healing skins, on which I paint stories. 
I said one day, that the images I create are the scraps of my soul. What I meant to say was that they are the scrapings of my soul. For this reason, I let the dirty and painful gritty parts of me be absorbed by the surface and tell the story they have to tell.
BIO

Born 1995 in Beirut, Lebanon

Lives and works in London, UK

 

 

EDUCATION 

2022     MA Painting Royal College of Art, London, UK 

2017     BA Fine Art Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK  

2016     BA Illustration and Comics Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts , Beirut, Lebanon

 

 SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022    Home, The Regency Townhouse, Hove

            What is becoming us, Rupture Xbit, London, UK

            Royal College of Art degree show, Royal College of Art Battersea, London, UK

2021    Taking Shape, Espacio Gallery, London, UK 

            The Ceiing With a Tranquil Eye, 24 Cork Street, London, UK

            RCA Work In Progress Show, online 

2020    Wimbledon College of Arts’ final degree show, online

            Penultimatum, Copeland, London, UK 

2019    Burn the Witch, Safehouse Gallery, London, UK

            Sandpit, 72-75 Red Lion Street, London, UK

 

SELECTED PERFORMANCES

2022     End times, Amersham Arms, London, UK

             No I don’t want no scrub, hARTslane Gallery, London, UK

2021     Self Skinning Poly, Hundred Years Gallery, London, UK

             Moving Harts, hARTslane Gallery, London, UK

             The Monstrous Femme, The Safehouse 1, London, UK

2020     Final year degree show, online live event, London, UK

2019     Four Hands meet for the first time, Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK

             Angela Willament has 6 toes, Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK

EXHIBITIONS