Oil Painting - Early Works

Though “ Lilliputian in Scale ”, (Paraphrased from Arrhenius, 1997, “The World according to Alfred E. Neuman,” in Art Planet, Paris: France, Association International des Critiques d’Art, Vol.1, No. 0, 1999,10)  “King,” and “Queen” (both 12“x12“) are excellent examples of Kazaz’s sculptural painting style.  Using a heavy impasto Technique to apply the paint he forms the dignitaries’ heads by piling bold abstract shapes on top of each other.  He creates facial details, like Velasquez, capturing the essential features of a character by manipulating a mass of paint, color, light, and space with a few bold strokes.  In an attempt to demystify the royal couple, both the &ldqut;King” and “Queen”, have sections of their heads, sliced away, revealing a dark void.  Odd geometric shapes take flight and orbit around the figures.  The Queen’s head is precariously balanced on the edge of a plane bisecting the middle of her collar; it resembles the lid of a half opened basket or the bucket.  The slicing through, the orbiting materials and deeply shadowed voids underscore the hazardous reality of leadership – where the slightest faux pas can push one into an abyss.  “This vertiginous similarity causes the viewer to experience the world the way it looks when no one else is looking at it… and leads us to suspect that our vision can never entirely take in the world without its flaws and imperfections” ( Arrhenius, S, 1997, 10).

Another work that reads like a sculpture is “Donkey King” (oil on linen, 50”x48). Kazaz celebrates color, texture, surface, and volume, by seemingly carving his figures and their accoutrements out of a thick atmospheric block of earth tones and cast shadows. A full figured female nude, whose face is concealed behind a donkey shaped mask, stands next to a squat genderless person wearing a simple peasant outfit with a wide hoop skirt and a veiled religious headdress (hidden face bear a strong resemblance to Kazaz). The intentions of the latter are not so secret; its left hand reaches upward, touching the woman’s waist. The female struggles within her naked innocence and claustrophobic intimacy, to no avail. The stroking makes her twist and lean into her counterpart. Neither looks at each other but their future is clearly informed by subtle physical references, e.g. a dagger and an enlarged hatpin piercing the aggressor’s headpiece, as well as a phallic anteater-like object held in its right hand. It all happens so fast. The stranger asks, why she is holding the mask? And a chance meeting and polite conversation spiral downward into the loss of innocence.



1992-1999

2000-2002

2003-2004