NASO interviews: Madhawi AlGwaiz
On her POUSH Residency in Paris
Madhawi AlGwaiz's ( b. 1995 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) work is a thoughtful blend of traditional and contemporary influences.
Working primarily with acrylic and colored pencil, she employs a dynamic interplay of bold, expressive brushwork and meticulous, detailed rendering that alludes to her home country of Saudi Arabia. Her deliberate color choices and textural contrasts evoke a sense of nostalgia while capturing the vibrant pulse of day-to-day life and social events, inviting viewers to engage in a rich dialogue between cultural history and modern identity.
"Sometimes I feel like it's a very elusive field. The thing is with art, anything goes. Anything is acceptable as artwork. But because of that notion, it's also very scary. Because there are no limitations. What makes your artwork good compared to others? That's the thing, you don't know."
"I realized that there's this invisible set of rules, even socially in the art scene. It's what makes you feel even more alienated. So this is the essence of my series- tackling this universal feeling. Every time I told people about this concept, they would tell me 'yeah, everyone feels that way.' And that's why I'm tackling this here for myself, to be honest, because with these works, I'm carving a space for myself... even if it feels awkward- even if it's means being visually awkward."
"And the awkward part with each painting, there's like an awkward element. Here, it is a reflection. It's not, it's supposed to represent me, but I think it represents whoever feels this way when they try to insert themselves. So here it's a literal reflection of myself, but to be honest, you can insert yourself in many different ways."
"This painting has six plates with food around the table, representing like the six of us as girls. (Poush cohort.) And then the seventh plate, the empty one is my attempt at breaking into the scene. Also, our attempt at really integrating into Poush."
On Technique:
"It's really different from piece to piece, to be honest. I used to fully only paint or draw from imagination. And then I changed my process because I realized it's okay to use collages and images to help your process. I started to create like digital collages where I would take photos or find photos online and just like cut out and like find and just place them. I then, print them and that's kind of my reference. Sometimes I add a bit, but depending on the piece, sometimes I don't."
