Friedman Benda Presents Art Objects that Play with Forms

The art gallery Friedman Benda gladly welcomes with open arms the art exhibition Transition. This is Beirut-based designer, Najla El Zein’s, first solo exhibition. Titled of Transition, these art objects were developed over the course of two years and represents 3 phases such as Distortion, Fragmented Pillar and Seduction.

Distortion

These objects act as varied embodiments of El Zein’s personal journey. Born in Beirut, the contemporary artist graduated from Ecole Camondo in Paris in Product Design and Interior Architecture.

Distortion

Recently, her art objects were exhibited at the iconic Victoria and Albert Museum and at the art exhibition Women + Design: New Works at the Dallas Museum of Art. The Dallas Museum of Art recently acquired El Zein’s art objects with the purpose of making them items of their permanent collection.

Fragmented Pillar

Her modern art illustrates various stages of the body’s shapes through a transformation. The sculpture art is made of concrete and explores forms and the material. These concrete shaped silhouettes create a surrealistic sense of Distortion while embracing femininity and sensuality at the same time.

“Fragmented Pillar symbolizes the disturbance of one’s foundation. Strong, erect and imposing, the pillar is the mother structure of any given entity. A disruption as such results in the fragility of the pillar’s fundamental function, characterized by its revealed fragments,” El Zein states.

Through a series of interactive sculptures made of plaster and sand, the series explores the physical and emotional disorder through the disturbance of one’s foundation.

Fragmented Pillar

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Fragmented Pillar

Lastly, the Seduction art objects depict human interaction and connection between figures in varying degrees of proximity. Synthesizing abstraction and representation, these stone-sculpted forms explore a range of states from introversion to desire.