Nasser Al Aswadi

"Nasser Al Aswadi was born in October 4th, 1978 at al Hujr village, not far from Taiz, the third city of Yemen. He lived in his village until he turned 16 years old. Later on, he studied architecture in Taiz and then in Sanaa. He exhibited his first works in Sanaa in 2001. Since 2008, Nasser has been moving between Yemen and France.

For Nasser Al Aswadi, calligraphy is a way to express feelings and thoughts without them being specifically linked to the language. He uses Arabic letters, words and forms as well as religious and musical sources. The wide variety of meanings and styles nourish the artist’s creativity.

Nasser’s work is inspired by the events of the Arab Spring, daily realities, rural landscapes, architecture, and public crowds on the streets. As he was always keen to translate this experience into artistic creations, in each piece of work, Nasser picks a writing style that lends the best sense and passion to that particular work. Letters and words are not drawn on a straight line or horizontally, but painted and stacked separately and are identical to each other, tangled and lost in the imaginary space of the painting.

The purpose of using interlocking letters is to offer an artistic style of his own. Nasser has exhausted all the different styles of Arabic writing to create a world in which his work is abstract and is obviously inspired by everyday events and concomitantly makes use of the energy and light of the words he selects. Writing is the core of his work and it strays from the normal usage of those terms to enable others to enter into a world of sign and visual language."