“My work relates to the human condition through the representation of the body. More recently the action of dancing – sometimes taken as a full or fragmented action – has continued to manifest in my pictorial universe as body-landscape, sometimes without a head or face. It is anonymous, hidden by a sheet that becomes one with a gesture,” explains Syrian artist Nagham Hodaifa about her work.
Born in Soueida, Nagham Hodaifa (1981) graduated from the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus University and received her PhD in contemporary art history from the Paris-Sorbonne University. Continuing in a similar vein of research to her art, her thesis examined the German-Syrian painter Marwan (1934–2016) and the presence and absence of the human face in his work.
Hodaifa’s expressive works in drawing and painting flow and curve in a sensual way using a brilliant palette of contrasting colours to shape and shade the visible anatomy of the figure. Exploring different body parts and positioning in her pictorial work, Hodaifa moves smoothly into performance, bringing together her concepts and investigation of these fragments in their movement and fluidity.
Nagham Hodaifa has held many exhibitions and performances, sometimes creating multi-disciplinary events by combining painting with dance, music, poetry and calligraphy. Her works have been acquired by the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, Galerie Claude Lemand, and by private collectors in London, Paris, Vienna, Beirut, Buenos Aires, Brac, Berlin and Milan.