Sara Chaar

Visual Artist​

An Untitled Body

Opening on the 19th of October.

"Gallery Claude Lemand"

(Paris, France)

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of his gallery, which was founded in Paris in October 1988, Claude Lemand, a collector, gallery owner, art publisher, and major donor to the Institut du Monde Arabe museum, is pleased to offer a selection of sumptuous recent paintings by artist Sara Chaar.

"Sara Chaar's 'An Untitled Body' explores existential inquiries that question the conflicting ideas between biological characteristics and social constructions of identity through a series of abstract compositions that act as metaphorical maps of the artist's anatomy and psyche.

Chaar's new work uses microscopic fragments of chromosomes and cells to create an abstract representation of her body. By altering their scale or using only bits and pieces, her biological imagery serves as both the origin and destination of her artistic process. These referents touch upon the artist's identity and are embedded within each painting layer, revealing the psychological and physiological depths beneath the skin.

Sara Chaar's works serve as personal testimonies that operate as unconscious negotiations between our bodies and the culturally determined codes that construct thought. Given that identity formation can be seen as a consequence of transgression and taboo, what images arise that encapsulate the withheld sentiments of the self: emotional mindscapes, a floating infinity of cells and organs, or merely an accumulation of layers that progressively erases the memory of the brushstroke that preceded it?

Text extract from exhibition press release

Where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter

cold wax and oil on canvas

200x 150cm

Opening

cold wax and oil on canvas

200x 150cm

Numberless

cold wax and oil on canvas​

200x 150cm

everything everywhere II

cold wax and oil on canvas

200x 150cm

The Continent Before the Big Bang

cold wax and oil on canvas​

200x 150cm

Clarity is fleeting

cold wax and oil on canvas

200x 150cm

Feels like an amniotic sac

cold wax and oil on canvas​

200x 150cm

Infinity is in my Body

cold wax and oil on canvas

200x 150cm

Repository of Memory

cold wax and oil on canvas​

200x 150cm

Teeming Interior

cold wax and oil on canvas

150x130cm

the lingering memory of pleasure

cold wax and oil on canvas​

150x130cm

"​Continuous"

Marie Jose Gallery"

(London, England)

Aptly titled, Continuous is Chaar’s second solo show at Marie Jose Gallery. After the success of Wanderings in 2021, Chaar is back with a new collection of highly personal works. Impressive in scale, the works are tidal waves of emotions when observed from afar. They can also be read like the pages of a diary when scrutinised meticulously. For the artist, painting is an intimate process through which she embeds her sense of identity and explores her relationship to her body. Intimately visceral, her canvases are riddled with vein-like lines through which her creativity flows and onto which her paintbrushes bleed. Expressive and complex, the works produced for Continuous are intended to be experienced in the flesh. Infused with stories and revelations, these works are meant to be read like contemporary palimpsests - constantly communicating more to those who look deeper. The exhibition will be on display at Marie Jose Gallery in South Kensington in London until the end of February 2023.

Text extract from article written by Louis Denizet.

everything everywhere

cold wax and oil on canvas

130x 110cm

everyone alive wants answers

cold wax and oil on canvas​

150x130cm

"Liminality"​

Galleri Tom Christoffersen

(Copenhagen, Denmark)

Series of paintings created between 2021-2022 that were exhibited at Galleri Tom Christoffersen in Copenhagen, throughout August 2022.​

being a poem is a waste of time.

mixed media on canvas​

200 x 150cm (sold)

Am I you?

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (Sold)

time and infinity making love.

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (unavailable)

A foreign body

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

you recognize my restlessness?

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

what's it like in your reality

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

Is this body mine?

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

i am a stranger

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

You opened countless images in my mind.

mixed media on canvas​

150x115cm (sold)

a universe to wake from sleep

mixed media on canvas​

200 x 150cm (sold)

an imagined light

mixed media on canvas​

205x155cm

layers, time, layers, time, layers time..

mixed media on canvas​

115 x 150cm (sold)

"What Remains On The Walls"​

(Beirut/ Paris, 2021)

Participating artwork at "Lumières Du Liban" grand exhibition that opened on the 23rd of September 2021 at the Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris. This piece is now part of the museum’s permanent and largest collection of modern and contemporary arab art in Europe.

"What Remains On The Walls" is the title of Sara’s series of wall imprints. These works are made by copying traces of time and past events left on the walls in Beirut. The imprints are made on large format canvases in the streets and then reworked in the artists studio. The aim of this project is to imbed these paintings with the social and political DNA these walls hold and place them into an artwork where the artist integrates her visual language questioning her identity as a female Lebanese artist. Part of this project is now part of the permanent collection of the Institut Du Monde Arabe in Paris.

"Wanderings" Series

(London/ New York, 2021)

Wanderings is a series of works Sara Chaar made during her private residencies in France after deciding to indefinitely leave Beirut where she was based. Her residency was hosted by visual artist, Florent Maussion, in a space that used to be a metal factory. The “very huge and inspiring space” was shared by her partner Visual and Theater Artist, Antoine Bouguier, who was also invited. During this residency, Sara created the body of work that would become “Wanderings”. The main theme running through this work is the feeling of abandoning roots, or cutting connections and ties to any particular place. these works or "wanderings" came about during her reflection while adjusting to a new space of work, new people, a different type of nature and a different approach to life. this series has been exhibited in 2 parts, one at Marie Jose Gallery in London and the second at CJ One gallery in New York City.

(blue dot black line series no.4) ​

mixed media on canvas​

205x155cm

the strangest places​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​

blue dot black line series no.2​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​

Am I Lost Yet?

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m sold

What if?

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m sold

a web in the blue​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​ (on hold)

when limbs meet​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m (sold)

Being Yellow

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​ (on hold)

strange and absolute​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​

on another line​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m (on hold)

a story of rust​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m (on hold)

(blue dot black line series no.5)​

mixed media on canvas​

205x155cm sold

opposition of masses​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

"Imagined Certainty" Series

(Beirut, 2021)

"Imagined Certainty" is a series of paintings that was exhibited at Art On 56th gallery in Beirut. The paintings of the collection are abstract; they are also a reflection of the gestural work of the artist telling of all the dilemmas and chaos Beirut is currently facing. The nature of her work lies in the poetic and literal sense of layering. The artist explains that in her previous work, she had avoided color or just used it subtly. In this series, Sara deliberately uses color very boldly, because she is stating something with each piece. The colors here reflect sentiments, which is part of the ‘fictional reality’ she is creating. The ‘Disappearing’ series abstains from color. These works of mixed media on paper are a more sensitive approach to the general themes of the exhibition. I wondered about the title of this series, and the artist shared with me her thoughts: “‘Disappear’ or ‘disappearing’ are words or concepts that often reappear in the thought process of my work”, she states. “The word interests me as it makes sense in the nature of almost everything that exists. Colors can disappear as can we.”

Text extract from press article written by May El Hage

first time i saw pink​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

insects and glass​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m (sold)

I OPENED A POMEGRANATE​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m sold

I ONCE WORE YOUR SKIN​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m sold

Imagined red​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

sPEAK OF SOLITUDE​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

DREAM OF PIG SKIN​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

I THOUGHT OF INSECTS​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m sold​

spring and mud

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m sold​

like fire in my mouth

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m

tastes like eternity​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m (sold)

atoms are red

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

red space

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

yellow plastic

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

sky and skin​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

just as blue​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​ sold

floating ​

mixed media on canvas​

1.20 x 1m​​​

BLUE DOT BLACK LINE​

mixed media on canvas​

2.05 x 1.54m (sold)

"Insect Imprints and Memory" Series

(Beirut, 2018-2020)

black smoke

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m sold

dark honey

mixed media on canvas

1.20 x 1.00m

memory

mixed media on canvas

1.20 x 1.00m sold

strange people

mixed media on canvas

1.20 x 1.00m sold

why am i here?

mixed media on canvas

1.20 x 1.00m sold

staying soft in fire

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m sold

lines and particles

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m sold

najib ardati street (hamra)

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m

do i dare?

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m sold

the road to nowhere

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2.08m sold

light between the cracks

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

broken asphalt

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

conceptual lines

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

an eternity to feel

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

honey and no pain

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

often my thoughts are wrong

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

in which darkness?

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

It Sits Like Time

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

erased fireflies

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

poopoo

the smell of rust

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

disappearing things

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

A universe to wake from sleep

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m

stains on a stone

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

explode this body

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

filters of light

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

copper and other minerals

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m sold

nothing and everything

mixed media on canvas

1.5 x 2m (not available)

they carry it in them

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m (not available)

Whats the ghost road?

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m sold

where the light gets in

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m

you smell like love

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m

time is a disease

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m sold

the sun is just a dream

mixed media on canvas

1.10 x 1.5m sold

(2017-2018 series)

untitled 1

mixed media on canvas

size to be updated

untitled 2

mixed media on canvas

size to be updated

untitled 3

mixed media on canvas

sold

untitled 4

mixed media on canvas

size to be updated

untitled 5

mixed media on canvas

sold
old

untitled 6

mixed media on canvas

size to be updated

Work On Paper

(Beirut, 2018-2020)

mixed media on paper

75 x 110cm sold

mixed media on paper

75 x 110cm

mixed media on paper

110 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

mixed media on paper

80 x 45cm

"Raw" Series

(Beirut, 2018-2019)

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

120 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

75 x 120cm

mixed media on paper

75 x 55cm

mixed media on paper

75 x 55cm

mixed media on paper

37 x 55cm

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

75 x 55cm
7

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm
7

mixed media on paper

75 x 55cm
7

mixed media on paper

120 x 75cm
7

mixed media on paper

120 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

55 x 75cm

mixed media on paper

15 x 15cm
7

mixed media on paper

15 x 15cm
7

mixed media on paper

15 x 15cm

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