SERGE NAJJAR

Serge Najjar proceeds like a goldsmith of cities as he shows their manifold geometric potential.

He casts his photographer’s eye on our interaction with materials and their correlation with the history of modern art and geometric abstraction. His approach may be instinctive, but his views allow us to reconsider our contemporary surroundings on a human scale. People’s presence makes utopian, at times overwhelming architectural structures appear more human.

Najjar’s work thus examines the interrelationship between painting and photography.

"When I started taking photos to capture real life around me, all the art books I had read during my childhood gained significance, from Cubism and abstraction to the French avant-garde and Russian Constructivism. Every image had an influence on how I saw things around me as I dealt with the challenge of creating.

You feel alive again when you take a fresh look. It’s powerful when you come to realize that you can get others to apprehend what they cannot see on their own.

You end up realizing that there is no ideal location for taking photographs, no such thing as the perfect city. Architecture can of course be a source of inspiration, but what makes subjects truly interesting is contemplating settings and aesthetics, and making use of our ability to reconsider what we think we already know.

Photography has helped me explore the fine line between the ugly and the beautiful, the ordinary and the less ordinary, between chaos and order, reality and truth."

Biographie

Serge Najjar is a Lebanese photographer born in Beyrouth Lebanon in 1973.

He is a Doctor in Law, graduated from the University Panthéon-Assas in Paris.

He is a self-taught photographer.

Solo shows

“A Closer Look at the Ordinary” - Guest exhibitor at FotoIstanbul - Turkey (September 2017)- “A Closer Look at the Ordinary” - Catherine Edelman Gallery - Chicago USA (January -February 2017)- “Sculpting the Shadows” - Galerie Tanit Munich - Germany (June - September 2016)- “Beyrouth, entre les lignes” - Médiathèque de Draguignan - France (March - April 2016)- “A Closer Look at the Ordinary” - Galerie Tanit Beirut - Lebanon (February - March 2016)- “Abstract Realities” - Station - (Photomed Beirut) - Lebanon (January 2015)- “Abstract Realities” - Salon de la Photographie - Versailles - France (November 2014)- “Abstract Realities” - Sanary sur mer - France (May 2014) - Winner of the Photomed prize 2014 (January 2014)- “Lines, Within” - Tanit Gallery Beirut - Lebanon (September - October 2012)

Group exhibitions

Palm Beach Modern and Contemporary - Catherine Edelman Gallery (January 2018)- Paris Photo - Grand Palais - Paris - Galerie Tanit (November 2017)- Expo Chicago - USA - Catherine Edelman Gallery (September 2017)- Ateliers Relief Brussels - Group Show - Belgium (June 2017)- Art New York - Context New York - Catherine Edelman Gallery (May 2017)- Art Paris - Grand Palais - Paris - Galerie Tanit (March 2017)- AIPAD The Photography Show - New York - Catherine Edelman Gallery (March 2017)- Pinakothek Der Moderne - Munich - Benefit Auction - Germany (November 2016)- Art Miami - USA - Catherine Edelman Gallery (November 2016)- Expo Chicago - USA - Catherine Edelman Edelman Gallery (September 2016)- Paris - Courbevoie (Parc de Bécon) - Group exhibition (June - November 2016)- Ateliers Relief Brussels - Group show - Belgium (June 2016)- Paris Photo - Grand Palais - Paris - Galerie Tanit (November 2014)- Rencontres d’Arles (Off d’Arles) - Off the Wall / Framology (July - September 2014)- Art 14 London - Galerie Tanit (February 2014)- Art Elysées Paris - Galerie Tanit (October 2013)- Swab Barcelona - Galerie Tanit (September 2013)

Press