Paintings by Nihad Al Turk

Many of Nihad Al Turk’s deeply psychological compositions, informed by readings in literature and philosophy, can be read as allegorical self-portraits.

Central to his work are the thematic explorations of man’s endurance amidst the power struggles of good and evil- an existentialist question that has engrossed the artist for some time.

Al Turk’s regular cast of imperfect creatures, mythical demons, still lifes, and botanical elements serve as the symbolic outcasts, anti-heroes, and rebels of a harrowing narrative.

Recently, he has set aside the dark palette of his earlier mixed-media paintings by injecting vivid hues in the form of solid colour fields that accentuate figures. This visible sense of optimism is juxtaposed with the quieting of his protagonists through a robust, no longer disfigured physicality as they finally escape the weight of their world.

Nihad Al Turk was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1972. A self-taught artist, he began drawing at a young age and pursued painting in his adolescence before launching his artistic career in Syria in the late 1990s.