MANGO, MUSTARD, SAFFRON SUNLIGHT (WHEN I SAY YELLOW)

In her paintings, LA-based Sarah Awad purposefully blends the divide between the background of a painting and the person depicted. From her abstract composition made with a variety of paint applications, Awad teases out the anatomy of three women. Like abstract masters and her influences Richard Diebenkorn and Henri Matisse, the color and paint application take priority over the figures. Faces, arms, and torsos are differentiated with blocks of tan, gold, and light blue, though the artist also uses these bold gestures to break apart much of their form. The nude women within the frames exhibit an intimacy with each other, a theme the artist focused on in her 2021 series looking at the isolation of the last few years. Awad’s work has been part of numerous group and solo exhibition in the US, and her work is in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art.