WEST PALM BEACH, Jan 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — KhawamGallery announces its participation in ArtPalmBeach 2018 Booth #N134 features 3 contemporary artists, Tony Khawam’s new collection, Aleppo Urban Landscapes, presents a semi-abstract vision of Syria’s war-torn cities. Jeff Whyman’s Planar abstract Steel Figures and Ceramics. Armenian-Lebanese Mkrtich Mazmanian’s abstract Figurative Sculptures in bronze and marble.

Art Palm Beach is an international contemporary art fair at Palm Beach County Convention Center, West Palm Beach, FL will be celebrating its 21st edition.

Khawam stopped painting in 2001 after the events of 9/11, but picked up his brush again in 2015 influenced by the Syrian crisis. “My primary focus is of my birthplace–the city of Aleppo with urban scenes of collapsed apartment floors, fallen balconies, curved rooftops and punched holes in the building facades. My aim is not to focus on the politics of the conflict but to raise awareness to the tragedy” explained Khawam, whose family immigrated to the US in 1976 and became a naturalized citizen five years later (TonyKhawamArt.com). “Viewers at first glance see and experience both the sadness of the scene and at the same time a hopeful feeling” explained Juliana Morello, the curator of BaileyArts.org in Ft Lauderdale.

Whyman has been exploring the expressive possibilities of sculptures for more than four decades creating large-scale abstract expressionistic steel figures and ceramics – performing fanciful arabesques, frenetic leaps or playful pivots – radiate a loose-limbed exuberance based on exaggeration of posture and precarious balance. The Planar abstract figures recall Picasso’s expressionistic Paintings of Dancers, their silhouettes displaying a fluidity similar to line drawing. Instead of dominated by the ponderous formalism characteristic of much steel sculpture.

Mazmanian is an Armenian-Lebanese artist known for his abstract figurative sculptures in bronze and marble. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art reminiscent of Brancusi’s Bird in Space sculpture. He has held exhibitions across the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Russia and USA.

RECEPTION: Wed, Jan 17, 6pm – 10pm
VENUE: ArtPalmBeach WPB Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd, WPB, FL