INTRODUCTION

Fayez Barakat is best known for being one the world’s most important collectors and dealers of ancient art. Filled with pieces from every age and culture, his galleries around the world are precious treasures to behold and admire. They are a unique, timeless gift to this fast-moving contemporary world.

Even though his involvement with art started at an early age in Jerusalem, Fayez Barakat - the artist - is unknown to the world until now. He kept his paintings in secret for many years, only family and a few fellow painters have seen his work. Throughout his entire career, his extensive knowledge and involvement with antiques, art, history and culture has shaped his artistic practice into what we can see, feel and appreciate today.

It’s a privilege to be in the presence of his paintings. They are so powerful that they take the viewer into a journey of observation and meditation beyond imagination. The viewer is transported across a journey of subconscious connection to beauty through Barakat’s powerful textures and vibrant colours. They become the path to conscious emotion through the admiration of abstract art. His work is a connection between his various passions and his inner emotions.

If you ever have the opportunity to meet him, you’ll immediately notice he is a passionate ARTIST who feels deeply for life. He expresses himself with such contagious passion and effervescent spirit. It’s inevitable to not feel the same when you see his paintings as they are a true reflection of his soul. He seeks to share his path of creation and deepest sensations with the world. “I transcend to another dimensionwhenIpaint,andIhopethattheviewertrancestoablissfulstateof mindwhenobservingmypaintings.”

He is an insatiable, even obsessed painter. He works like a sleepwalker throughout the night, painting, being absorbed by his subconscious thoughts and creative process. “Myworksarearesultofdeepmeditationthatsometimestakesmeoutofmy body,exploringdimensions,differenttexturesandcolours.Aliberatingprocess of creation, through reflection, contemplation, love and passion, I approach each painting with the images I foresaw.” Only a true creative spirit can find these extraordinary words to describe what is not easily understood but truly felt: the transformation of his soul into the creation of his art.

It is inevitable to not think of a great creative force when we think of Fayez Barakat - A man who’s been surrounded by inspirational culture and art his entire life. A man who showed passion and talent for painting from a young age, but talents lay dormant as he journeyed across an international frontier with his unprecedented ancient art galleries. Now, all of that energy is coming out through his paintings; they are the creative consequence of a life filled with art in every sense. In a recent interview, he spoke about these inner energies driving him to become the “ medium” for the creation of his paintings. He talked about his feeling of being obsessed, if not “possessed,” by the need to paint every day.

Artist Statement

‘Beyond Resonance’ is inspired by the idea that every cell in our bodies, and every atom that makes up the world around us, is characterised by constant movement. Although we are not able to see them, we know that the electrons and protons present in everything around us are never still, but are always vibrating and travelling microscopic distances. There are different frequencies, some slow, some fast, but they are all around us. This circular movement can act as a kind of spiritual purification.

In our lives, we will all face good and bad events, difficulties, and challenges, which can have an effect on our nervous system. Through this series, I hope to aid all human beings to contemplate and reflect on our past experiences. Through shared resonance, we have a relationship to nature, to the sun, to rain, to everything that exists in this universe. Hopefully, these works will be able to send ripples of positive resonance through us, and induce a state of purification of the cells in our bodies and minds, giving us a clearer image of who we are as human beings.

Fayez Barakat