Words By Star Allen | JO Magazine
STEPPING INTO ZARA GALLERY on an unseasonably brisk evening this month, it would have been impossible not to be instantly cheered by Karima Ben Otman’s vibrantly colored, whimsical forms so vivid they nearly pulsate off the canvas. At first glance, Ben Otman’s artwork is undeniably pleasant to take in, bright and unpretentious. But the naively stylized characters belie a deeper purpose than merely pleasing the eye.
Ben Otman’s playful works of her signature Fish Paintings series prove unexpectedly precise upon closer inspection. When given the opportunity to examine the show at leisure, her disparate though cohesive body of work engrosses further still. One panoramic panel titled “In the Beginning” reveals a primordial jumble of hundreds of miniscule monotone aquatic creatures and two red fish locked in a pursed-lipped kiss—a droll euphemism for the evolution of sex, and thus romance, out of amoeboid asexual reproduction. Adroit art with guileless wit? I was won over.
These days art goers can hardly attend an exhibition of any kind without encountering cerebral complexity so contrived with cocked-eyebrow intellectual affectation it would seem those without post-graduate cultivation need not attend. While the art world has long been the playground for the erudite, art sans artifice is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity, making artists like Ben Otman an all-the-more exhilarating phenomenon.
The refreshing paintings were conceived by an even more affable talent. As a beaming Ben Otman warmly introduced herself at the opening, she candidly inquired as to whether her work was to my liking. I’ve been asked for my thoughts, cautiously invited for speculative discourse ad nauseum by artists in regards to their own work, but never before blatantly asked if I liked what they created. It was wholly disarming.
Born in London to Libyan-Jordanian parents, she moved at the age of nine to Jordan and has since lived in various locales around the globe, including Florence where she studied fine arts and first devised her trademark Fish Paintings. She currently resides in Cyprus and, elaborating on the inspiration behind her recurring marine motif, Ben Otman says the sea is a deeply mysterious place, representing the depth and incomprehensible complexity of human emotion. The ocean’s endless variety of fish with their large, innocent eyes make the ideal subjects for emoting their human counterparts’ most nuanced feelings. The artist’s unstudied air is—like her work—not for lack of substance.
Humbly tucked away in the gallery’s back corner is the show’s most powerful piece. An acrylic on canvas painting titled “Revolution” comprises a frenzied background of shadowed faces in various expressions of angst and outcry merging to form the silhouette of a single triumphant figure. Of all the recent commentary and discussion on regional politics, none has come close to capturing the emotional zeitgeist so eloquently. Amidst myriad puffed up soapbox liturgies in the guise of political commentary, Ben Otman’s “Revolution” demurely captures the essence of this time and place in history with equal parts acute intellect and raw emotion.
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