Bîstyek, "Untitled," 2019-2020
acrylic, graphite and and charcoal on fabric, 60" x 91.5" (courtesy the artist)
A Syrian refugee who goes by the artist name of Bîstyek evokes the trauma of displaced people who have witnessed the horrors of war in his first show in Winnipeg.
His subjects' eyes – often blank or sagging, sometimes with lashes that resemble sutured wounds – speak of woes and weariness.
Occasionally, a hand shields the face, as with an untitled work showing a soldier whose body is a vacuous space defined by a long belt of bullets and two hand grenades that dangle from a non-existent belt. A disembodied hand holds an assault rifle, while two boots march along below.
Bîstyek, 24, was born Ormeya Zagros in a Kurdish city in Syria and fled to Lebanon, where he lived in a refugee camp before arriving in Winnipeg three years ago with his mother and two siblings. He created the works over the last year or so based on his memories of people he had met during seven years in Lebanon.
“It’s a mix of everything that I’ve been through,” he told the Winnipeg Free Press. “I want to really share it with others … to feel what I’ve been through. It’s not just about me, I know it’s happened to a lot of people. So I want to just show them, or tell them, about the experience.”
An installation view of Bîstyek's exhibition in Winnipeg. (photo by Tayler Buss)
Bîstyek's exhibition includes many boldly coloured portraits. They vary widely in style, but often feature planes of saturated colour, some more minimalist and sylized, others more psychologically probing. Bodies are often angular, even disjointed, and certain motifs, like women in red kerchiefs, pop up in different paintings.
Curator Lisa Kehler says she was immediately drawn to the emotional content of the self-taught artist's intuitive work. She sees similarities to work by Egon Schiele and Jean-Michel Basquiat, all the more interesting as she says Bîstyek has virtually no knowledge of the Western art historical canon.
“It seems he has channeled their energies, or tapped into a past zeitgeist,” she says.
The pop-up show, which opened Oct. 16, includes some 50 works. Originally scheduled for a month, the show has been extended until Nov. 30. Although much of Winnipeg's art scene is locked down amidst a COVID-19 spike, the host venue, at 300 Ross St. in the Exchange District, is designated as retail space and can welcome visitors.
Go here to see more images or book an in-person appointment. ■
PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories.