Omar Al-Nakib

In his Adlibs, Omar Al-Nakib plays on the balance of color and geometry, finding upon completion either a point of condensation or a new direction in which to set off. They remind the viewer of Newtonian force diagrams and molecular cell structures, of jazz and seesaw stacks of rocks on the shore. There is a universality to these drawings born out of their aesthetic simplicity. Each renders a symbol, similar to a hieroglyph, in its completed state. They move towards the lingual but remain within the realm of art through their ambiguity of meaning and their detachment from any discernible object. In them is a continuum that begins at the basic Euclidean shapes of the circle and the triangle drawn in a heavy and abyssal black. These bodies first appear as single notes on the page and are proliferated with tightrope precision until they comprise a unified vision, akin to the natural world in its sense of spontaneity. To accent the central black mass Al-Nakib uses a bombastic and virile red that adds a dramatic and at times almost narrative structure to the work. There are ones in which the vertical penetration and sharpness of the triangle dominate, ones in which the red is so strong that it feels akin to a Soviet propaganda poster or a journey through the flag of the Rising Sun. In others, the shapes push together in groups of masses, becoming springy like an accordion. They twitch together, every shape and color awaiting its emancipation from the state in which Al-Nakib has fixed it. The images thus act as linchpins of the great polarization of harmony and chaos. In them is both the pillar of the Apollonian temple and the wild stone that it has temporarily tamed.

— Brandon Bien