Lot
36
The Secret Place
Watercolour on Arches paper, 2013
28 x 38 cm
Estimate
$2 000
Language carries enormous weight. Notice the difference in yourself, or your lover, when you utter terms for female genitalia such as “slit,” “gash,” or “open wound,” as opposed to poetic terms such as “hidden place,” “precious pearl,” “the sacred spot,” “scented bower,” or “lotus of wisdom.” Some words have the ability to shame, whereas others may simply inspire more pleasure. This painting is an ode to the unabashed, confident woman who sees her sexuality as precious, a source of wisdom.
Biographical note
Nadine Faraj has been keenly exploring portraiture and the nude in watercolour. She often employs eroticism as a means of revealing neuroses, beauty, and even spirituality. She works in direct defiance of those who insist that the realms of sex and spirit cannot overlap.
Faraj has a BFA from Concordia University (Montreal, 2002) and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts (New York, 2015). She also took intensive courses in life drawing and anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (2008). Her work was recently shown at The Crypt Gallery in London, England (2017). Her second solo exhibit at Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montreal (2016) featured portraits of topless political activists; it was reviewed for La Presse by Éric Clément. Her art was featured on the cover of the winter 2016 issue of A Women’s Thing magazine (New York). She has exhibited her work at the Dubai International Art Symposium (2008), articule gallery (Montreal, 2009–2010), the Helen Day Art Center (Vermont, 2010), and Nuit Blanche Toronto (2010). In 2016, she had her first solo exhibition, Naked Revolt, at Anna Zorina Gallery (New York).
Lot Is Closed