©AES-F From the series - Action Half Life

While a lot of contemporary art remains in a narcissistic bubble dedicated to its own self-reflexive trajectory, there’s art emerging from war zones and the Middle East that cuts through the abstractions to where it really bleeds.

Inspiration from real life in volatile regions of the ME can bring new meaning to what it feels to be a tortured artist. Iraqi artist Halim Al-Karim, defying Saddam’s compulsory military conscription during the first Gulf War, hid in the desert for 3 years in a hole in the ground, surviving from food brought to him by Bedouins. His experience gives him empathic power to express the anxieties of his subjects. Many of his prints depict veiled or gagged men and women, their identities masked or blurred, radiating mute terror.

© Halim Al-Karim 'Urban Witness' Series

Churchtank Type 8 mixed media assemblage 2010 © Kris Kuksi

Even artists who are apolitical in their work cannot but be affected by the increased proliferation of war imagery in the media, and subconscious mirroring of violence in the cyber-world. But veterans exposed to battlefield-trauma, suffering from PTSD, might feel more drawn to the emotive power of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Titus Andronicus or ancient Greek theater than the slick, contemporary dramatizations of televised warfare. The group, Theater of War, currently presents ancient Greek drama for military audiences believing that the classical plays were originally written about combat veterans, and that their communal story-telling, had therapeutic power.

The art collective AES+F began their Islamic project in 1996. Well before the September 11th strikes, they tapped into the western fear of Islam, exploring the idea of an Islamic jihad that would engulf western cities.

London - © AES/Islamic Project

Rome St Peters - © AES/Islamic Project

German-born English artist Karin Sabine Krommes‘ work explores the brutality of wartime aircraft design and the implied violence of machinery with cold, detailed precision. London-born Lebanese artist Zena el Khalil says of her own artwork, “I was born in war. Everything around me now is war. War has always been. I cannot remember a time when there was no war.” Her mixed media artwork feminizes military men, sexualizes and homoeroticizes objects of warfare, AK-47s, and diffuses their brutality with fluffy pink barbie doll imagery. The two women’s response to violence and war cannot be more differently expressed.

© Zena el Khalil It's a Boy! | 65x168 cm | mixed media | 2008

My First Diaper (My First Kiss) | 70x130 cm | mixed media | 2008 © Zena el Khalil

© Karin Sabine Krommes (1979) Swarm (Transit) Oil on linen 120 x 180 cm

Untitled III Hand cut card & insects mounted in a found entomology drawer © Karin Sabine Krommes

Master of Ceremonies Gary Baseman addressing his captivated audience. Photo by Kyle Dean Reinford.

Last Thursday night played host to another superbly cultural—and culinary—event at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea. Gary Baseman, the curator of the gallery’s newest exhibit, True Self, hosted a dinner put on by SPREAD ArtCulture in collaboration with New York’s Supper Club and the American Friends of the Louvre. The evening was sponsored by Domaine de Canton and AriZona Vapor Water. The three-course dinner was preceded with a walk through of the gallery by Baseman, who gave a synopsis of the show’s background, as well as a beautifully choreographed glimpse of each artist who is participating in the show.

Baseman told the group, “In this exhibition, I have invited a group of painters, photographers, and sculptors, to look deep inside themselves and create an image that they feel represents their own passion or obsession. They might imagine themselves as anyone or anything—a wolf, a cupcake, a mermaid, even a skyscraper. I am requesting each artist to create an artwork that represents his or her true self. I am not asking for (nor do I want) a self-portrait. Rather, I’m requesting that the participating artists pick an icon, metaphor, or symbol that they feel represents their true essence.”

The Supper Club of New York’s mission is to “bring together interesting and talented likeminded people in unique places for parties that create an enticing environment to whip up business, meet new friends and set taste buds on the prowl.” They were very adept in creating not only an amiable and intellectual ambiance at the LeVine Gallery, but were able to help set the tone for a night of good dialogue, interpersonal connections, and top-notch culinary formulations. Supper Club representative Dara Levine commented, “The night was really a celebration of all things artistic…. From an orchestrated seating plan to the palate of colors that popped off our plates, to the guided talk by Baseman (who later proceeded to sketch impromptu drawings on our menus), it’s this collaboration of our minds and entertaining that brings these dinners to life.”

For more information on the Supper Club, please visit www.thesupperclubinc.com.