Nasser Al-Aswadi

Working across calligraphy in his paintings, the Yemeni artist finds words on his canvas a way to express feelings, emotions and thoughts without being linked to the language. He deals with a combination of letters, words and shapes in a very personal way in regards to their meanings, references and religious symbols. The blossoming patterns between these shapes have created a profound impact on the artist and have given him a chance to experience his unlimited desire to create.

Throughout his paintings, Al-Aswadi selects a particular calligraphy style that lends the most passionate touch towards these impressions. The letters and words are not painted on a straight line or horizontally, but painted and stacked separately – tangled and lost in the imaginary space of the canvas.

Writing is at the heart of my work, and my purpose is to transcend mere terminology and proceed into the realm of signs, of a visual language.

Inspired by the uprisings of the Arab Spring, the artist has been keen on translating his experiences of the aftermath, public crowds, the daily realities, the rural landscapes and architectures and turning them into his own unique creations.

Al-Aswadi’s stunning twist and swirl of letters has led him to creating a peculiar style of his own that tells stories of his background and culture.

My work is characterized by obvious magic and inspired by everyday events – I use the power of words and light. Calligraphy is the core of my work, it strays from the idea of registering a concept and, instead, it enters the world of visual language.

Nasser Al-Aswadi was born in 1978 in a small village of Hojar near Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city. He lived in his village until the age of sixteen and later moved to the capital Sana’a and studied architecture at the Fine Arts Institute. He turned to painting in 1998 and exhibited his work for the first time in Sana’a in 2001. Ten years after he first began painting, Al-Aswadi moved to France, which he now considers his second home, and divides his time between Sana’a and Marseille. He has been showcasing his work in group and solo exhibitions since 2008 in Yemen and France.