Marwan Sahmarani (Lebanese, b. 1970)

In Summer Shooting, Marwan Sahmarani's impactful freedom of gesture through brush stroke and heavy impasto showcases the raw energy in a form of intense vibrancy that highlights an act of violence that is surprisingly sensual whilst aggressive. As tortured faces and bodies amalgamate in a dense, overpowering mass of rich and fiery tones of heavy impasto across his vast and empowering canvas, it is impossible to remain unaffected the artist's innate ability to impress his viewers with a sharp criticism of social political issues in his native Lebanon while maintaining a visual vocabulary that appeals to all.

Primarily a painter whose oeuvre combines recurrent themes of art history with his own contemporary life and experience, his works draw from his Western cultural education as much as his own Oriental identity, to forge his own unique identity that is quintessentially raw but multi-layered.