Saad Syed
The works donated by Shaan Syed for the project #100NHSRooms were featured in the 2019 show ‘Maghrib’ at the Montreal gallery, Parisian Laundry. The title of the show refers to one of the five daily Islamic prayers performed after sunset, meaning “in the West”, to indicate the direction of where the sun finally falls each evening as you face Mecca. The colours depicted in these paintings are reminiscent of these sunsets, when the sky is its most vibrant pink and orange.
Writing about the works donated, the artist notes: “When you divide a picture, suddenly you have to contend with bringing the two sides back together. There’s a negotiation, tension and reciprocity that has to happen and it becomes part of the painting process”
Shaan Syed, Untitled (1-3), 2020, Oil on khadi paper. © Shaan Syed
Shaan Syed works installed in Royal London Hospital Virology department staffroom
Shaan Syed lives and works in London. He holds a diploma in Fine Arts from OCAD in Toronto and a Masters degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College in London. Syed has presented several solo exhibitions including I & I, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland; Licking Forward Tangerine, noshowspace, London; and CAPITAL!, Michael Janssen Gallery, Berlin. He has received awards and scholarships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Elephant Trust UK, Arts Council England, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Jerwood Contemporary Painters UK.
