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ZAHRA - PHANTOM FAIRY TALES

15/9/22 - 9/10/22

Zahra (b. 1998) is a Liverpool-based
painter who creates bold, semi-abstracted scenes which coat everyday
behaviours in a patina of dreamlike possibility. Emerging from a
colourful haze, Zahra captures ghoulish and strange characters engaged
in relatable actions, familiar ghosts haunting recognisable interiors. 

Each
individual work represents a moment in time or space that the artist
has chosen to depict as it forms part of her “personal mythology” - the
series of experiences or memories that constitute who we are as people.
Zahra paints these moments to explore and question their significance,
deliberately obfuscating their personal relevance, and gleefully taking
on the role of an unreliable narrator in allowing the artistic process
(and her own bias) to suggests changes. The resulting works are rich in
emotion and mystery, and speak to how memories can be shaped and
re-shaped by storytelling.

Zahra's work (first exhibited at the OUTPUT Open in 2021) can also currently be seen as part of the exhibition Refractive Pool: Contemporary Painting in Liverpool at the Walker Gallery. Zahra is a graduate of Liverpool Hope University.

Please join us for the exhibition launch, 6-8pm on Thursday 15th September.

Instagram: @zxhrartt

Header image - painting photographed by Adele Robinson

Q&A WITH ZAHRA

Why is painting the right art form for you?

At
the moment, painting allows me to get across the right ideas and themes
that I'm trying to explore with my practice. I'm always open to explore
other art forms and experiment but for right now I'm enjoying painting
and discovering the boundaries surrounding it.

What kind of stories inspire your paintings), and where do they come from - social media, books, myth etc?  

It's
hard not to be influenced by these things rather than inspired. I can’t
really pinpoint what inspires me from a certain moment or what I look
for when deciding on what to paint - if something sticks out to me then
I'll just take it from there. I like playing with ideas of myth and
discovering what makes a certain moment memorable. 

Do you use reference imagery or life drawing to research / prepare your paintings, or do you prefer to work from imagination?

Wouldn’t you like to know ;-)

Do you think Liverpool is a good city for artists? Do you intend to stay here?

Personally,
for what I want right now in my career as an artist, Liverpool has that
to offer, it's why I've chosen to stay here for as long as I have. 

Is there any theme connecting all the works in this exhibition?

The
theme is narrative. Using paintings to tell a story - whether or not
the story is true or happened doesn’t matter much, it's more about the
viewer's subjective interpretation of what’s going on in the stories
I've created in the painting. 

What are your ambitions or goals for the future as an artist?

To
have the opportunity to keep developing my practice and having people
stay interested in what I make would be pretty cool. I've always liked
the idea of being able to travel internationally with my art so to have
the opportunity to exhibit in another country would be sick. I'm very
grateful for what I've been able to achieve so far.