Robischon Gallery is pleased to present four, concurrent solo exhibitions featuring Iraqi/Colorado artist Halim Al Karim, Colorado artist David Zimmer, Iraqi/Colorado artist Sami Al Karim and Swedish artist Maria Friberg. Dreamlike and contemplative, the evocative imagery of each distinctive artist offers a soulful investigation of the surrounding world and our relationship to it. All of the artists presented utilize the medium of photography and video with a non-traditional approach and view their subjects though a lens both intimate and vast.

“One must say yes to life, and embrace it wherever it is found. For nothing is fixed forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.” - James Baldwin

Halim Al Karim

From the time he was a young artist in Iraq, Halim Al Karim determined the camera to be a “truth seeker.” Decades later, this internationally recognized artist has distinguished himself with his psychologically-charged portraits and signature photographic techniques. Al Karim’s own impressively scaled, custom camera on view in the exhibition offers a glimpse into the compelling nature of the photographs that surround it. Two of the artist’s commanding parallel series’ “Eternal Love” and “Lost Memory” speak to a dream state of remembering what the artist calls “the beloved” and include Al Karim’s newest collodion photographs produced via his large hand-built camera. Al Karim’s commanding, other-worldly figural images are created through a myriad of methods – often beginning with layers of latex paint applied directly to his models’ faces, then subsequently photographing them through a silk scrim. The dominant color is achieved in a second layer whereby Al Karim paints the back of each film negative either by pouring or by applying pigment by hand. This approach has offered the artist the ability to not only control the light and shadows like he has in past series, but also to “never to be at the mercy of an external light source,” as his philosophical father stated early on to the artist to “carry your own light from within.” Al Karim took these words to heart and invented a way of manifesting his elusive images as a protective layer - to obscure the identities of his subjects, “in order to keep them safe.”

The evolution of Al Karim’s visual language over the years has become emblematic of a connection across cultures resulting in broad recognition throughout the Middle East and in Europe for his universal concerns for humanity. Choosing love in the face of war and family over politics, Al Karim’s journey of self-discovery has informed the artist’s distinctive bodies of work because of and throughout a life of much persecution and turmoil. One such pivotal chapter involved tremendous isolation in which Al Karim lived alone in the Iraqi desert for three years to avoid serving in the military under the profoundly cruel regime of Saddam Hussein. As a distillation of such experiences, his art has been dedicated to acknowledging the unvarnished realities of the human condition, yet with an overarching theme of love. Though to freely make manifest such imagery, it required decades of patience and secrecy since to speak to what Al Karim saw around him would have great repercussions. Earlier series such as ”The Witness Archive,” for example, cleared the way for transcendence in both freedom of expression and living a life in focus. Al Karim offers, “It is my feeling that each soul stems from and exists within an all-encompassing love and cannot wholly survive without recognizing its presence in the world.” The shadowy figures of the series, stand on the threshold of two worlds, but reside steadfast in the saturated light of only one. In this, they reveal an open door, where all the beloved who have come before reveal an ultimate view of love eternal. The presence of the massive hand-constructed camera that yields his newest wet-plate collodion photograph series reveals in its startling presence just how limitlessly innovative and committed an artist Halim Al Karim is in pursuit of capturing what the artist considers “the light from within and emanated by each individual soul.” Although the technical process of collodion prints was invented in the mid- 1800s, it fell out of favor for its cumbersome materials that required immediate proximity to a darkroom. Used primarily for portraiture, the collodion process allows for great detail, but never before has been seized upon to make such enormous images. The latest “Eternal Love” images, Eternal Love 16 and Eternal Love 17, are reminiscent of a bygone era with its all-consuming process and sensitive in the way the artist makes manifest a long ago memory of a songstress whose melodious voice captivated him as a child and the image of whom he holds in his heart even today.

Halim Al Karim’s photographic oeuvre is the result of a poignant and compassionate journey of both body and soul from his country of Iraq to his larger sense of a universal identity. His deepening and unceasing quest to bear witness and seek the highest truth generously allows all who enter to share in his expansive view. Halim Al Karim will be speaking about his life and work at the Denver Art Museum’s Logan Lecture series on Wednesday, September 25th at 7pm. A book signing will follow the event to benefit the museum. For additional information and tickets, please contact DAM Contemporaries at damcontemporaries.denverartmuseum.org 720.913.0152.

David Zimmer

David Zimmer’s mesmerizing video objects and light panels of oceans and land forms beckon the viewer to look within. A potent, green hue floods each ocean image in Zimmer’s “Vapor” works, blurred as if seen from a distance through memory. These frozen fragments-in-light open up new possibilities in seeing – each of the artist’s series a contrast of the opposites within. With all of the pieces constructed to be self-illuminating, Zimmer’s poetic sensibility is most tenderly revealed in his signature bird series. In the sculpture entitled Can You Hear Me?, the animated lavender waxbill finch engages us with its lively presence and melodious birdsong while igniting a larger investigation of meaning. Visually setting up the question as to whether the bird is safely housed inside a vintage bell jar, possibly held captive or impacted by humankind’s attachment to technology, the artist‘s intuitively conceived worlds offer a thoughtful consideration of nature and our relationship to it. Zimmer’s intriguing work sparks the question of how we view ourselves within the continuum – as we observe the bird, the bird in turn meets our gaze. Zimmer’s visual language is a constant of elements merged – the past and the present; the real with the dream.

Sami Al Karim

Presenting two exhibitions of photography-based work in the main gallery and the Viewing Room, Sami Al Karim’s “Dream” and “Identity Steps” series address a transcendent view of identity as understood through self-love. As a political exile from his Iraqi homeland along with his brother and fellow artist Halim Al Karim, Sami Al Karim’s artistic mark is both passionate and hard won. Both artists directly experienced what it is to be disconnected from family, friends and country and to be profoundly challenged by what defines personal identity even as a politically-motivated, military regime attempted to strip away all dignity. As is proudly, yet mindfully, acknowledged by the artist, Sami Al Karim endured extreme incarceration under a death sentence as a political prisoner at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Jailed for displaying a heartfelt “Peace for All” sign that by some twisted view was offensive to the authorities – the indomitable impulse of Al Karim’s soul to create was kept kindled. He states, "There was a small layer of salt on the cement walls and I used a piece of wood to make the outline of my paintings. I had to erase the whole show before the morning when the guards visited the cells." The clandestine drawings coalesced with his memories of what it was like to be outdoors in nature prior to his imprisonment and are at the center of the artist’s “Dream” series. Comprised of multiple images from select locations from Europe, the Middle East and the US, the artist imbues the layered imagery with a passionate intensity informed by his past perilous experiences; ineffable in their origin and palpably felt.

While his works may reflect personal losses, what is truest for Sami Al Karim is that each of the series’ most importantly reflects his understanding that universal love remains as the singular constant in the world. The artist states, "Art can present an alternative to what people think they realize or to what they expect to know which might otherwise be too painful or too beautiful to experience. I try to capture a single moment when home and exile do not seem opposed to each other, but are parts of the single process of our existence. Through my work, I recognize the possibility that there are no true boundaries in our lives.”

Sami Al Karim’s Identity Steps challenges the concept of borders. The artist’s own life experiences have revealed to him directly that individuals do not belong to any one country or place, but rather each person can be seen more fully as a citizen of the world. In addressing this point, the layered imagery within the Identity Steps series overlaps numerous cities including Rome, New York City, Paris and Dubai to be seen as a prism of belonging – a way in which to view all as its global citizens. Emphasizing diverse communion over separation, the artist’s powerful vision offers to locate both himself and the viewer in a world where the perilous past is transformed into the promise of a life integral.

In his video entitled System, Sami Al Karim’s ideas are abstracted further - to expand the thought that our true identities reside within an even larger world or as part of a transcendent reality. Wandering to the sound of birdsong, the figures in Al Karim’s spectral video move in and out of light in what the artist states is a representation of our quest to “seek our higher selves or love.” Layered as digital texture and meaning, the video was also composed by utilizing imagery from the artist’s own paintings from his Passion series; imagery which alludes to a state of transition from non-believer to believer. According to Al Karim’s personal belief system, in order for souls to obtain their truest identity as love itself, they must gather and reunite by following the distant sound of the ancients made manifest as if mellifluous birdsong.

Maria Friberg

Internationally recognized in video and photography, Maria Friberg’s approach consistently holds within it a universal stance. Often isolating figures in intense juxtaposition to one another or against elemental forces such as water or gravity, the artist is concerned with how humankind maintains physical and spiritual equilibrium within the context of a complex world. Frequently featuring males as the subjects of her characteristic visual vocabulary, the artist offers a poignant take on the notion of “the everyman” as how humankind fundamentally views itself. Bringing forth this idea heightens the artist’s more primary theme of what unites us as human beings also connects us to the larger plane of existence. Her images often suggest that a kind of composure coupled with a measure of surrender help keep balance in life no matter the situation.

Enveloped by violent frothing waves, the figure in Friberg’s Blown Out video appears to keep his head within the dramatic surroundings – even as he is tossed and submerged repeatedly. The figure is miniscule against the vastness of the churning sea, vulnerable and alone. Yet within his relentless predicament, there is constant resurfacing; a visual weightlessness that serves, for the artist, as a metaphor for maintaining balance under even the most unpredictable vicissitudes that inevitably lash at us all. Similarly, the focused figure in the large video entitled Calmation, blinkingly concentrates on maintaining his equilibrium in an endless rush of frigid water, adapting to a kind of calm in spite of the unusual circumstances. The unmoving figure marooned amidst the rushing water and its loud sounds invokes within the viewer the knowledge that cultivating a calm state courage through anxiety and fear is required to see who we really are while in the unknown. In accepting surrendering to the turbulence even while an environment in flux brings swift movement and change, the anchored figure reflects a point of stillness within; a quest for tranquility over tumult. Intensely immersive and alluding to an ever-engulfing world within nature and beyond, Friberg’s visceral visual realm illuminates a universal path – the quest for stillness itself.

Friberg's engaging ceiling-projected video entitled Endless Limit, originally shown at Robischon Gallery in 2006, features sliding, non-stop tap-dancing feet was a highlight of the Denver Art Museum's "Blink! Light, Sound and Moving Image” exhibition where the video remains in the museum's permanent collection.

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