LATIFAH A. STRANACK
Cluster Exhibitor | Cluster Contemporary | 2022
Latifah A. Stranack is an emerging British-Omani contemporary artist, who graduated with an MA from the Royal college of art and an MFA from the Slade school of art.
The relevancy of her art is matched by the poignancy of its far-reaching subject matter. She is an exciting artist to watch. Not only is she creating a dialogue about some of the most piercing issues facing humanity today, but she is also a female artist that in a timely way directly addresses the historically absent female gaze.
Latifah A Stranack
Stranack has an incredible ability to powerfully penetrate the roots of our shared humanity- the connections that universally bind and the urgent conflicts that divide us. Visionary in its conception, her work explores the creative process of hybridisation that emerges when cultures collide and connect; giving rise to a new sense of universal identity that expands self-perception.
3D Love | 2022
Through her imagery, she explores what it is to be human. Weaving innovative narratives over mixed media, she tells moving and cathartic tales of ancestry and family across displacements of culture, time and loss. She invites her audience to explore human resilience and vulnerability, feeling out how inextricably connected we are through global challenges- regardless of race, religion and gender.
Symbols| 2021
Call it love | 2021
“I invented my female heroines as a tool to explore these concepts, at times appearing half visible beneath a sheer fabric, eyes staring intently through a traditional batoola mask, or with lids delicately closed, lost deep in contemplation. These women and their surroundings, which I obsessively paint, are all fictional members of my metaphorical tribe. Through painting, I challenge the perceptions of my existence, brown skin from my father and white skin from my mother.
The bold figures of my tribe are turned into goddesses, symbolising and celebrating the child, maiden, mother and wise older woman, a vehicle for me to tell my stories and connect with myths and heroines from the past. I am mending all the broken umbilical cords of DNA, separated by time, land and mispronounced vowels, completing me, even in my fragmentation. ”
“Painting has always been my happy place to reflect, question and feel connected to all the events around me.
My mixed heritage has often been a source of inspiration, and growing up between cultures has created a rich narrative and atmosphere for me to think about and utilise. I have always been fascinated by cultural hybridity and how this can also cause conflict in some situations.
Partially revealed, I attempt to reshape my reality and bring memories from the past to life, forever layered in washes of paint, helping me work through subconscious emotions and fears. The work I create empowers me to make sense of who I am as I contemplate my identity and the world around me.”
The Studio
Latifah A Stranack
