Fayez Barakat - Beyond Fantasy

HANNA BELLA PUBLISHING

BARAKAT

BARAKATT

INTRODUCTION ANTHONY DOWNEY

REPRO RICHARD HARRIS

EDITED BY OLIVIA TAIT LAURA DI NICOLANTONIO

PRINTED BY DECKERSSNOECK NV

PHOTOGRAPHY LUCINDA DOUGLAS-MENZIES IGOR ERMAKOV WAHB MABKHOUT STEFAN TSCHIRCH YOUSEF AL-ZOUBI

COPYRIGHT © FAYEZ BARAKAT TEXTS © THE AUTHORS ISBN 987-0-9567936-2-1

PUBLISHED BY GRAPHIC DESIGN PETER KEENAN

HBP HANNA BELLA PUBLISHING

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form of electronic or mechanical means including storage by information or retrevial systems without written permission of the authors except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

BARAKATT CONTENTS

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

7

Fayez Barakat

INTRODUCTION

11

Professor Anthony Downey

CATALOGUE

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A R T I S T

S T A T E M E N T

EVERY DREAM STARTS WITH A FANTASY. FANTASY

IS THE SPRINGBOARD OF HUMAN

INSPIRATION. IT IS THE THRESHOLD OF SUCCESS, AND SUCCESS IS THE BASE OF CONTEMPLATION.

VISUALIZATION

IS TRIGGERED BY FANTASY, AND THE RESULT IS MATERIALIZATION.

THROUGH MY ART I SEEK TO BREAK AWAY FROM TRADITIONAL REPRESENTATION OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS.

I

EXPLORE RELATIONSHIPS OF FORM

AND COLOUR.

OUR

SENSES RESPOND TO

VARIOUS STIMULI AND ARE CONNECTED AT A DEEP AESTHETIC LEVEL.

MY

ART HAS A

SPIRITUAL DIMENSION AND CAN TRANSCEND EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE, REACHING A SPIRITUAL PLANE.

THE

THEMES

FOCUS ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL, THE CONTEMPLATIVE AND THE TIMELESS.

I DEDICATE A SERIES OF MY PAINTINGS TO FANTASY. I WISH TO SPARK A LIGHT IN THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE VIEWER SO THAT THEY MAY FANTASIZE FURTHER ABOUT THEIR OWN DREAMS.

THROUGH

THEIR PERCEPTION OF THE BEAUTY OF MY ARTWORKS

I

HOPE TO TRIGGER

THE REALIZATION OF THESE DREAMS.

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Cosmic Fantasy 105 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 152cm | F.4115

INTRODUCTION

BY PROFESSOR ANTHONY DOWNEY

THE WORLD AS HE FOUND IT MEDIATION AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE WORK OF FAYEZ BARAKAT

Fayez Barakat is best known as the world’s most important dealer and collector of ancient art. His gallery in London is a treasure trove, filled to the brim with fine antiques ranging from Maya crystal skulls to Mogul statuary and Egyptian jewellery. However, and whilst Barakat’s extensive knowledge has helped shape key private and public collections (and to this day he remains a leading scholar in his field), there is another side to him that is fast becoming apparent: he is a prolific and highly accomplished painter who has managed over the last few years to establish an eclectic and allusive body of work.

Employing an astonishingly wide range of techniques, Fayez Barakat paints like other artists sketch; that is, he paints restlessly, loosely, energetically and gives over free rein to the flow of ideas going through him. The paintings, partly triggered by visions and ideas that the artist has (he calls them “concerts of ideas, colours and themes”), are mostly executed at night between 2am and 5am or in any other free time he has from running and managing three major galleries across three separate time zones. Other ideas come from the environment in which he paints, ranging as they do from his studios in Jordan, Los Angeles and London, and, of course, the history of art that he has assiduously studied and the many artists that he has personally admired over the years.

The themes of his paintings are likewise varied and allusive, encompassing ideas such as fantasy, meditation, ecstasy and nirvana. These works not only embody his visions and feelings though, they often engage him in a process of what can be only called transcendence. In one recent interview he has spoken about the inner energies driving him and the sense that he becomes a “medium” of sorts channelling ideas and techniques in a manner that even surprises him. As the artist has noted, with a look of slight bewilderment, it is for him “beyond belief ” that he should be so obsessed (if not possessed) by the need to paint every day.

So what, we may ask, is going on here: an expert in the field of antiquities and a respected collector in his own right emerges — apparently overnight, so to speak — as an accomplished artist whose seemingly insatiable appetite for painting shows no sign of abating. Is this unusual or are we seeing a natural progression from collector to producer, the end effect of many years spent not acting upon a desire to make work whilst at the same time being surrounded by some of the highest quality art and artefacts in the world? Is this the story of a man destined to focus on collecting and the day-to-day running of his galleries at the expense of that which gave him most pleasure: painting? And if this is the visual manifestation of all that pent up creative energy, what then are we witnessing here?

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Global Warming Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x183cm | F.3306

Before those questions can be more fully answered, it is interesting that Barakat has not just arrived at painting but was an accomplished painter as a young man, garnering plaudits for his works and numerous invitations to show them. Trained at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, he mastered an array of formal skills but nevertheless felt somehow constrained by their rigid discipline. Something else was needed. We should also note here the fact that as a young man Barakat worked alongside the world-famous British archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Kenyon, a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture who is best known for her Jericho excavations between 1952 and 1958. It was with Kenyon that Barakat sorted and identified shards from her work in Jerusalem and it was at this time that he became expert in both pottery classification and the principles of field archaeology. However, due to his career as a collector and dealer in antiquities and personal reasons, this youthful creative promise was put to one side until relatively recently. The archaeological inclination, however, when viewed alongside his pursuit of formal painting skills, can be still seen in Barakat’s work in the manner in which ideas on the canvas seem to be constantly in the process of coming to the fore but, somewhat paradoxically, are being unearthed through a process of accretion and addition of paint.

Taking up a paintbrush again after so many years of not painting was therefore transcendental if not ecstatic in its force for the artist, returning him to a time when it seemed he would take a different path in life and yet reconnecting a number of passions for archaeology, ideas, art history, and the sheer force of being creative. Working like a sleepwalker through the night, he paints and is completely absorbed in the creative process and the legacy of the art and artefacts he has lived with for so long. Needless to say, Barakat is aware that many of his paintings only partly achieve what he sets out to realise in paint and for every successful painting there are many which he puts to one side. The process, despite the creative energy expended in the producing of the work, is also a slow procedure whereby lesser works are filtered out of his oeuvre with the ambition being an anxious and far from resolved attempt to constantly redefine the limits of his ever-growing visual language. Such is the process of painting: a constant refining and honing of the ambition and the endurance of occasional disappointment in the name of realising a better work down the line.

So far, so good. We come closer to understanding what drives someone to create and then recreate day after day with a seemingly indefatigable energy. Barakat has noted that be becomes so engrossed in his work that he forgets everything else around him.

“I dance around the canvas”, he has said, and thereafter welcomes a moment of bliss brought about by achieving the work. So his activity is also about painting as a tool to learn about himself and his own motivations. It is within the context of this sense of rediscovery, visualised in the works included here, that the artist becomes a medium of sorts, a “tool” enabling an inner vision to materialise on the canvas.

When asked to write this essay in 2010, I was struck by a story that was in the news at the time. It involved a man who, following brain surgery, awoke to find himself compelled to draw and paint. Prior to his operation, he had shown no inclination to do anything creative in the visual arts or ion his day-to-day job, and yet following it he could do nothing else. It was as if a switch had been flicked in his brain, he had commented at the time, and after that everything else paled in comparison to visualizing the world and his thoughts about it. Needless to say, the brain is a complex place and I would not feign to understand what happened there – and nor would the doctors and neurologists who attended this born-again artist; however, and whilst Fayez Barakat has never underwent such trauma, it is obvious that the form of meditation and transcendence that he finds in painting flicks a switch in his brain that gives him access to other areas of his brain that, in turn, trigger different ways of looking and visualising. In short, this trigger enables him to rediscover skills and talents that he perhaps thought lost to time and other commitments. It enables him to preserve a space beyond secular commitments and retain a creative realm where even he is not entirely sure what will happen.

Nephrite Fantasy 44 | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2611

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Given his interest in meditation, which Barakat has been regularly practicing since he was a teenager, it is not surprising that it demonstrates not just his passion for the life of the mind but his commitment to engaging a significant part of himself in the singular pursuit of painting. His paintings are intimately linked to his most intimate feelings, but it is important to note here that they are not representations or descriptions of these feelings, but their outcomes, their end results and manifestations. So what then, are we looking at? Like alchemy, Barakat’s painting is an art of transformation and sublimation.

Alchemy was effectively the search for a substance that could turn base metal into gold and the artist’s practice has been often likened to such transformational processes. Given the eclectic nature of Barakat’s collection of antiquities — a point to which I will shortly return — and the equally diverse series of inherited styles that he utilizes, it is interesting to note that the term alchemy has a somewhat circumlocutious etymology. The term is derived from the Arabic (al-kimia) by way of Medieval Latin (alchimia) and, more recently, via the Old French word alquimie. Whilst still contested, the most up-to-date research suggests that an Egyptian derivation may be valid for the word alchemy. In the extended series of paintings here that reference meditation and the alchemical process of transformation, a number stand out for their sense of a journey undertaken and a state of being that continues to be in transformation. Meditation 600 Q Fantasy - F.5094, (2011), for example, is remarkable for its quiet tone and understated strength. The royal blue colours are thinly veined with delicate navy lines that seem to suggest the ripples of a wave, or the marks indicating the depth and shifting contours of the ocean on marine maps. The work suggests a sense of peacefulness which in turn encourages a meditative gaze. A cycle is thus put into motion: Barakat’s private mediation of ideas generates an image which later encourages viewers to meditate upon both the artistry and the sense

of transformation underwent in that moment. Something is exchanged in this instant — and whilst it may not be the transformation of base metal into gold, it is akin to an epiphany on behalf of the artist and, perhaps, the viewer too.

In the act of choosing to work around themes such as meditation, transcendence, ecstasy and, latterly, nirvana, Barakat’s paintings explore and thereafter expand upon these ideas and what they mean to the artist. However, and perhaps more importantly, the works are also an invitation for the viewer to engage in these ideas and themes too.

I have recently been privy, since agreeing to write this essay and getting to know and greatly enjoy the company of Fayez Barakat, to the numerous comments made on-line by individuals reacting to his paintings. It therefore comes as no surprise that the artist’s generosity in producing these works is met with an equally generous response. Viewers write and speak of being “bowled over” and “amazed”; of being “fixed to the spot” by the images before them; or, for others, of being “transported” to another place. Most viewers speak of the effect of the images in the “meditation” series and, moreover, how they encourage them to meditate in turn. Blue Ecstasy Fantasy - F.5615, (2011), is a case in point. The red vortex-like impressions on aquamarine background invite the viewers to dive in, or at least to let themselves be drawn into the immensity that the painting gestures towards. The fainter yellow shapes, and the barely discernable black concentric forms, add complexity to the image and enhance its attraction. This multi-layered whirlpool of glaring pictorial fire stands out on the cool blue background.

The piece captures, and reconciles conflicting energies, a yin and yang of passion and respite, a restless movement between activity and calm, and also a sense of transformative steadfastness.

The practice of painting, that is to observe, takes Barakat to the most inaccessible recesses of his subconscious, functioning as a way for him to explore his own mind, and that can be both shocking and sobering for any individual, artist or not. When he paints he talks about a force, what he calls an “energy field”, that is ultimately beyond his control. Perhaps this is the “nirvana” he speaks of and paints: the moment of being free from other more earthly concerns. It is as if he is subdued and also transformed by an unknown entity — and for those of us who know him to be the generous, affable and energetic person that he is, it is difficult to think of him being subdued or indeed static for any period of time. However, the act of painting, as it internalises his energies, performs precisely this duty. Describing himself as being only the vessel through which the energy passes, he feels like the instrument of something greater than himself.

So remote does he feel from this energy field that the artist confesses to being surprised by the resulting works, sometimes even shocked. He has also noted in conversation how exciting a blank canvas is for him and yet slightly intimidating too – each venture into painting performed both willingly and yet with a feeling of trepidation, a sense of a

potentially vertiginous fall into his own psyche. What we should understand by this statement, however, is not fear per se but the artist’s love for a sense of potential. With a white canvas, everything is still possible. No decisions have been made, no directions have been taken, and Barakat cherishes this fleeting moment that only lasts until the first drop of paint is applied. And this ever-renewed excitement — maybe even a sense of being reborn — is undoubtedly what pushes him to experiment, again and again, each time taking the medium of painting into new territories.

Genetic Fantasy 1 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4548

This background-foreground relationship in these works also takes on a further significance when we consider the ancient scripts and symbols that have surrounded the artist since he was a young man and, subsequently, the antiquities he has both collected and exchanged with others. The artist is relatively coy on this subject of their effect on his work but has admitted the impact these scriptures and symbols have had and how they no doubt re-emerge in paintings such as those included in the ecstasy and nirvana cycles. Hieroglyphs and runes of paint cross and re-cross the canvas in these paintings which, in turn, come to resemble palimpsests upon which meaning is concomitantly concealed and revealed. “My former exposure to ancient art and ancient languages, scripts, geometric patterns and symbols”, the artist has averred, “has always influenced me and affected me very deeply. In some of my works, I go into a totally different dimension”. Alien Mosaic Fantasy - MB.0005 (2010), for one, nods at the ancient art that surrounds the artist in his day-to-day activities and the surface of this modestly sized work is studded with colour, jewel-like dots, in glowing greens, pinks and blues that also recall the early days of pointillism and, perhaps more strikingly, evoke the roughly cut tassels of early Byzantine mosaics, catching the light and shimmering with pictorial intensity as they do. Elsewhere, in Marine Fantasy 56QQ - F.5460 (2011), the fuchsia drops on the black background present themselves like a code, now indecipherable but still infused with a former meaning. Starting from a visual understanding of language, Barakat operates a form of visual translation that anchors symbols in the pictorial realm. It is thus a visual language that the artist develops that is ultimately informed by his day-to-day knowledge of objects and their significance.

The fact that Barakat feels so little control over the energy that takes him over immediately raises the question of spiritual if not spectral energy. What is this force? If it is not generated by the artist but coming upon him, where does it come from? Without going into mysticism, the energy field described by the artist nonetheless expands the understanding of his practice beyond the immediacy of the world before him. It could be that, unconsciously, the artist manages to tap into energies that become more difficult to reach for each over time. Barakat is nevertheless in tune with these out-of-this-world forces — in both his painting and in his collecting of objects that also have a similar other-worldly element to them, a history that is not ours but accessible only through the

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object itself. Correspondingly, the artist’s visions here are not our visions but they are made approachable in his visualization of them through the medium of painting.

The sheer variety of styles and approaches employed by Fayez Barakat testifies to the extent of his frenetic experimentation. Not set on a medium, the artist uses oil, acrylic, gold paint, and all sorts of pictorial substances as long as they allow him to fulfil the need of his insatiable creative urge. Again, it is interesting to note here that unlike what he calls “the disciplined artist”, he doesn’t know which medium he’s going to use until the very last minute. In a similar vein, Barakat’s relationship to painting exists unhampered by pictorial conventions. He wants to effect a direct, unmediated link between himself and the final artwork. Gestural abstraction is a more direct way for him to express his inner feelings. However, before we go any further and suggest the notion of the artist as ingénue (Barakat trained, after all, as an artist), it is also worth noting his relationship to other artists.

To hear Barakat speak about artists such Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and Juan Miró, his “great teachers”, is to both get a sense of his debt to them but also his desire to rethink his relationship to their art. In his words, he wants to continue their experiments and yet reach beyond to a space to where he finds his own art developing its own voice. For many, Veiled Fantasy T, F.4478, (2011), alludes to the work of Jackson Pollock; however, as Barakat has pointed out in interview, it is important that we also see these works as individual works by the artist. “Undoubtedly, these people have influenced me” Barakat has noted, “but sometimes I feel that I live their experience.

I don’t really try to emulate or imitate any artist.”

Eden Ecstasy Fantasy - F.4826, (2011), exemplifies both this lineage and the break existing between his work and the work of those who went before him. Four red, white and black serpentine shapes float on a deep purple expanse. These colourful elements have something of Miró’s surrealist landscapes. The oversized amoeba gesture at once to the micro and the macro, as well as to the conflicting energies of creation and destruction these colours are associated with in the context of Western iconography. The colour scheme also readily evokes Miró’s Dancer (1925), where a heart-like object appears suspended by a string to the moon on a balmy summer night. The absence of lines and of any even remotely figurative elements demonstrates the distance existing between Barakat and his forerunners. The artist has long got rid of any remnants of the figure.

For him the shapes stand as independent propositions, existing in and of themselves.

There is an odd story written in 1837 by Honoré de Balzac titled “The Unknown Masterpiece” which is set in the XVII century in a studio in the rue des Grandes-Augustins in Paris. The story involves an artist whose name is given as Frenhofer. He is aging

in Balzac’s story and has been working on a painting for many years, a painting that has consumed him day and night. However, upon finally showing this painting to his admirers, it is revealed to be nothing more than multiple lines and abstractions of colour.

Frenhofer, a figure that Picasso closely identified with, has obviously created a work of non-objective reality that is effectively a radical precursor to abstraction. The fact that his one-time admirers see in it the image of someone deranged is perhaps beside the point here: for Frenhofer this is his masterpiece and in it he sees the whole world as he found it and how it appears to him. Barakat’s paintings are also decidedly non-figurative, and yet looking at them reveals a sense of the world — internal to the artist — as he finds it.

Nautical Fantasy R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 91cm | F.4848

It is also difficult to avoid pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon whereby a viewer recognises shapes in abstract patterns. Beside the sheer feeling of joy that characterizes his Golden Euphoria Fantasy - F.4295, (2011), we could be tempted to see it as a country fête, or a young women in blue dresses dancing in the sunburnt wheat fields. Paradise Fantasy 500 - F.5111, (2011), with its golden leaves and ponds, could depict the Garden of Eden. The vibrant batik-like impressions in Burkina Fantasy - F.3150, (2010), seem inspired by the country the piece borrows its title from. Although Barakat does not systematically correlate his paintings with their titles, he often uses them as hints “to direct the viewers towards what there is to see in my work”. These paintings, like Frenhofer’s, contain the world for Fayez Barakat and, in his usual easy generosity and the manner in which he makes people feel at their ease, he effectively invites us to see aspects of that world too – however remote or, indeed, immediate it may ultimately seem to us. For the artist is possessed and obsessed by painting and it is the one thing that, to paraphrase his words, enables him to engage with bigger issues than himself.

Painting here has become a form of meditation upon the world and rumination upon the artist’s role in interpreting it and the world as he found it

ANTHONY DOWNEY PROGRAMME DIRECTOR CONTEMPORARY ART SOTHEBY’S INSTITUTE OF ART LONDON 5 April 2012

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CATALOGUE

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Lovers Fantasy R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4507

Underwater Fantasy 30 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 50cm | F.4722 Paradise Fantasy 683 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 50cm | F.4719

Genetic Fantasy 1 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4548

Terrastrial Fantasy 5 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4552

Yellow Fantasy 25 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4557

Lovers Fantasy E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4508

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Romance Fantasy 9Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4488

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Lovers Fantasy W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4509

Mustard Fantasy 25 | 2011 | 2011 | Acrylic | Acrylic on on canvas canvas | 120cm | 120cm x 180cm x 180cm | F.4580 | F.4580

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Cosmic Fantasy 105 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4583

Fantasy 107 E | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4581

Sugilite Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2617

Jasper Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 152cm | F.7775

Lunar Fantasy 5 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4553

Avian Fantasy O | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4434

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Veiled Fantasy 69 Z | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 76cm x 101cm | F.4350

Nautical Fantasy E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4436 Marine Fantasy 5 E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4437

Lunar Fantasy 5 B | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4566

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Marine Fantasy 5 B | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4564

Zoomorphic Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4384

Hypnotic Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 76cm x 122cm | F.4469

Venecia Fantasy | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.3726

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Romance Fantasy 9 R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4485

Genetic Fantasy 5 Y | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4453

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Genetic Fantasy 5 T | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4431

Lovers Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4511

Genetic Fantasy 5 F | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4541

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Avian Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4532 Following page Fantasy 63 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 92cm x 183cm | F.4764

Spring Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4230 Monet Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4204

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Harvest Fantasy 33 E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4203 Yellow Fantasy DR | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4206

Lightning Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4512

Nocturnal Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4381

The Three Graces Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.3046

Lapis Fantasy 25 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4584

Paradise Fantasy 5 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4525 Ireland Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4518

Terrastrial Fantasy 5 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4554

Marine Fantasy 48 HHH | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.5442

Avian Fantasy W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 100cm | F.4527 Forest Fantasy 5 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 100cm | F.4544

Finnish Fantasy 47 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 61cm x 121cm | F.4726 Finnish Fantasy 48 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 61cm x 121cm | F.4725

Paradise Fantasy 80 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 120 cm | F.4162

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Music Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4515

Yellow Submarine Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4549

Cosmic Fantasy 36 Q Alien Fantasy 45 Pastoral Fantasy W Avian Fantasy 36 Q

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2011 2011 2011 2011

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Acrylic on canvas Acrylic on canvas Acrylic on canvas Acrylic on canvas

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100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm

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F.4372 F.4154 F.4370 F.4369

Paradise Fantasy 5 B | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4550

Pink Fantasy A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4565

Romance Fantasy 9 G | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4403

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Romance Fantasy 9 J | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4412

Garden Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4389 Marine Fantasy 5 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4401

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Genetic Fantasy 5 D | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4543 Genetic Fantasy 5 G | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4540

Fantasy 112 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4049

Alien Fantasy 55 M | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.5461

Bird Fantasy 66 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 90cm | F.4962

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Alien Mosaic Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | MB.0005

Cosmic Fantasy 88 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 183cm | F.5003

Cosmic Fantasy 77 P | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 140cm x 140cm | F.5419

Antonela Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 152cm | F.2581

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Kandinkskia Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 152cm | F.2580

Veiled Fantasy T | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 122cm | F.4478

Marine Fantasy 60 K | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.4166

Rodeo Fantasy 405 | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2476

Fantasy 103 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 183cm | F.4139

Pristina Fantasy 40 | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 92cm x 153cm | F.2555

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Quantum Resonance Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 92cm x 122cm | F.2663 San Angel Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 92cm x 122cm | F.2652

Red Fantasy 42 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x100cm | F.4592

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Paradise Fantasy 69 X | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 76cm x 100cm | F.4352

Cosmic Fantasy 100 Q | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.3729

Ruby Fantasy | 2010 | Mixed media on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2608

Lunar Fantasy 5 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4553 Genetic Fantasy 5 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4538

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Begawan Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 183cm | F.2566

Genetic Fantasy 1 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4545

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Genetic Fantasy 5 E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 100cm | F.4529

Genetic Fantasy 1 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4563

Lovers Fantasy Y | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4504 Romance Fantasy 9 E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4486

Veiled Fantasy E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4520

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Ocean Fantasy 5 T | 2011 | Mixed media on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4637

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Turquoise Fantasy 5 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4546

Sunset Fantasy 36 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4367 Jasper Fantasy 24 R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4181

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Solar Fantasy 33 W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4196 Pink Fantasy 24 M | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4182

Paradise Fantasy 5 V | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.4418

Paradise Fantasy 40 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | MB. 0008

Nephrite Fantasy 44 | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2611

Alien Foot Fantasy A | 2011 | Mixed media on canvas | 91cm x 91cm | F.2723

Cosmic Fantasy 99 | 2011 | Oil on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.4645

|

113

|

Alien Fantasy 80 | 2011 | Oil on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.4648

Alien Cosmos Fantasy | 2011 | Oil on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4615

Abraham’s Fantasy | Summer Fantasy 56 Q | Terrestrial Fantasy | Pink Fantasy |

2011 2011 2011 2011

| | | |

Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Oil on canvas

| | | |

100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm 100cm x 100cm

| | | |

F.4617 F.4618 F.4614 F.4616

Planet Fantasy 1 | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.0760 Planet Fantasy 2 | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.0766

|

117

|

Garden Fantasy 5 | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.0759

Turquoise Fantasy | 2010 | Mixed media on canvas | 122cm x 122cm | F.2616

Genetic Fantasy 48 X | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.1479

Gurunsi Fantasy | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.2997

|

121

|

UAE Fantasy | 2011 | Oil on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.5359

Cosmic Fantasy 69 A | 2012 | Oil on canvas | 140cm x 140cm | F.7887

Ethereal Fantasy 5 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4491

Paradise Fantasy 101 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas x 9 | 30cm x 30cm each | F.4716

Nautical Fantasy R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 91cm | F.4848

Nautical Fantasy W | 2011 | Oil on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.4417

|

127

|

Dallas Fantasy 28 B | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.4421

Fantasy 110 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 122cm | F.4077

|

129

|

Nautical Fantasy E | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 91cm | F.4839

Spring Fantasy 25 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 100cm | F.4357

|

131

|

Dream Fantasy 44 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 100cm | F.4355

Etheral Fantasy 5 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4539

|

133

|

Yellow Fantasy 25 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4576

Veiled Fantasy R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 122cm | F.4480

Loom Fantasy 36 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4366

Ocean Fantasy 5 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4567

Lovers Fantasy D | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4399

Cosmic Marathon Fantasy | 2010 | Oil on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.3634

Richter Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.3618

Marine Fantasy 30 U | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 31cm x 76cm | F.4893 Marine Fantasy 30 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 31cm x 76cm | F.4895 Marine Fantasy 30 S | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 31cm x 76cm | F.4896

|

141

|

Paradise Fantasy 120 X | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 152cm | F.7797

Nocturnal Fantasy 24 W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4415 Nocturnal Fantasy 24 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4394

|

143

|

Lovers Fantasy K | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4449

Cosmic Fantasy 105 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4530

|

145

|

Genetic Fantasy 5 W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4531

Floral Fantasy 21 R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 75cm x 122cm | F.4468

|

147

|

Festive Fantasy Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 76cm x 122cm | F.4471

Cosmic Fantasy 105 C | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4572

Romance Fantasy 9 H | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4405 Paradise Fantasy 5 O | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4396

|

151

|

Paradise Fantasy 5 J | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4410 Paradise Fantasy 5 H | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 50cm x 100cm | F.4409

Pollock Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 92cm x 122cm | F.2661

|

153

|

Lovers Fantasy G | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4439

Lovers Fantasy U | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4502

Glorious Fantasy 1 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4561

Fantasy 104 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 183cm | F.4140

|

157

|

Cosmic Fantasy 30 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 80cm | F.4299 Cosmic Fantasy 33 T | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 60cm x 60cm | F.4199

Dream Fantasy 44 W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 100cm | F.4354 Floral Fantasy 69 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 75cm x 100cm | F.4353

|

159

|

Vieled Fantasy W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 152cm | F.4522

Lapis Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 150cm | F.4622

|

161

|

Fantasy 107 B | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | F.4577

Cosmic Fantasy 61 B | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 80cm | F.3495

Paradise Fantasy 5 A | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | F.4568

Yellow Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 182cm x 152cm | F.4123

|

165

|

Cosmic Fantasy 105 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 152cm | F.4115

Meditation 600 Q Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 152cm | F.5094

Paradise Fantasy 45 W | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 76cm x 76cm | F.5155

Blue Ecstasy Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x 91cm | F.5615

|

169

|

Marine Fantasy 56 QQ | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 120cm | F.5460

Alien Fantasy 39 K | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4387

|

171

|

Dawn Fantasy 36 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4368

Stellar Fantasy Q | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 100cm x 100cm | F.4376

Acapulco Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 152cm | F.2602

Romance Fantasy 9 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 140cm | F.4489

Paradise Fantasy 500 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 152cm | F.5111

|

177

|

Paradise Fantasy 65 M | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 152cm | F.5272

Paradise Fantasy 49 QQ | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 91cm x 122cm | F.5579

|

179

|

Ocean Fantasy 5 R | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4448

Meditation Fantasy | 2010 | Mixed media on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.3757

|

181

|

Alien Fantasy 24 Q | 2010 | Mixed media on canvas | 80cm x 120cm | F.3753

Orange Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 120cm x 180cm | P.0001

Pollock Fantasy 88D | 2012 | Acrylic on canvas | 140cm x 140cm | F.7867

Green Fantasy 90 | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 150cm x 150cm | P.002

Galactic Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 80cm x 100cm | F.3667

Marine Fantasy 55 KL | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 91cm | F.5595

|

187

|

Mariko Fantasy | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 122cm x 152cm | F.5294

Paradise Fantasy 5 N | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 90cm x 120cm | F.4438

|

189

|

Monet Fantasy 1 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 45cm x 45cm | F.6739 Monet Fantasy 2 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 45cm x 45cm | F.6742 Monet Fantasy 3 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 45cm x 45cm | F.6741

Fantasy 101 | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 182cm x 152cm | F.4134

|

191

|

Global Warming Fantasy 120K | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 153cm x 183cm | F.7791

Alien Fantasy 99 Q | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 183cm x 122cm | F.5080

|

193

|

Still Fantasy 20 X | 2011 | Acrylic on canvas | 182cm x 152cm | F.5063

Global Warming Fantasy | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 152cm x183cm | F.3306

|

195

|

Jordan Fantasy 44 | 2011 | Mixed media on canvas | 80cm x 100cm | F.4588

BARAKAT GALLERY Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, UAE 58 Brook Street, Mayfair, London 421 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, California Khalidiya Palace Rayhaan, Abu Dhabi, UAE Eastern Mangroves Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE Alserkal Avenue Street 8 Al Quoz 1 Dubai UAE Unit B9 31 Nagdawi Street, Rabieh, Amman, Jordan

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