Artinfo

Lebanese artist Shawki Youssef doesn’t confine himself to painting or drawing. His oeuvre is preoccupied with every facet of language; his brush strokes are exercises in poetic economy, his lines are testimonies to the human capacity for violence and fragility, and the titles of each of his works, particularly those in his ongoing show “Acid Fields” at Dubai’s Green Art Gallery are imbued with lyrical intensity so that they are not simply meant to provide context to the visual metaphors but to hint at larger philosophical meditations.

ARTINFO spoke to Youssef while he was in Dubai for the opening of “Acid Fields.” He told us more about his ambiguous conception of figuration, his Bedouin identity that impels him to opposite the studio format for the creation of work, and the influence of painter Francis Bacon on his artistic process.