I own my body.
That is what each of Nadine Faraj’s paintings declare. It is a loud and a proud declaration that looks you in the eye and dares you to shame it. I am shameless, it taunts and promises at the same time. You might own the gaze but the glorious bodies you are looking at own the pride.
I own my body. Not the state, the street or the home, not the temple. I insist on desire, pleasure and sex on my own terms, each of her subjects states. Hear the defiance that grounds each of the portraits.
Sex is chaos and liberation and joy. Nadine Faraj dares you to stand in that chaos and understand why it upends you so. Her colours and the bodies they bring to the paper instigate you to free yourself - they dare you! Her subjects emanate and illuminate a joy you want to reach out and touch; a joy that you will envy because it does not need your approval.
Queer, non-conformist, rebellious, disobedient, loud, huge, THERE. Nadine Faraj’s art disrupts your gaze and demands that you disobey.
- Mona Eltahawy, feminist author based in Cairo and New York City
Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to announce Get Used To Us, Nadine Faraj’s second solo exhibition with the Gallery featuring the artist’s latest series of watercolors. The title of this exhibition echoes a historic LGBTQ rights slogan "We're here! We're queer! Get used to us!” Her fluid wet-on-wet technique abstracts erotic scenes to reflect an essence of sexual freedom that celebrates the mutability of gender and identity. The artist’s expressive application of pigment creates a blurring of boundaries between her subjects in a way that mirrors the suspension of self when provoked by passion.
Nadine Faraj lives and works in New York and Montreal. She received an MFA from New York’s School of Visual Arts in 2015 and a BFA from Montréal's Concordia University in 2002. The artist has exhibited widely in shows internationally including New York, Montréal, Toronto, London, Athens and Dubai. Her work has been included in numerous press articles including features in Wallpaper Magazine, A Women’s Thing Magazine, Huffington Post, Arte Fuse and Vulture.
For further information, please contact Marie Nyquist at 212-243-2100,
or via email at marie@annazorinagallery.com.