| A Glimmery Breath of Light |
| Gor Soudan - Kenya |
There is something familiar, yet quietly shifting beneath the surface. Like the changing weather of the rainy season, his presence evident in his paintings reveal moments of light, glimpses of joy breaking through something more introspective.
Gor is an artist-thinker, working in solitude, committed to expressing his cognitive spirit with his visual intelligence. When I first encountered a recent work, I hesitated. It wasn’t immediately clear. And yet, with quiet confidence, in his deep baritone voice and his hair swept back, he reassured me: “It’s good Nicholas, its good, keep looking.” That moment reflects one of the central riddles of contemporary art: is it good? It’s a question with no answer except from the artist and the convinced viewer.
I have known Gor for over ten years and through the ups and downs of our lives he has become different, more accepting of the doubt and conviction of making art. I believe in the undeniable authenticity of his work, not something that can be defined, only felt shaped by one’s own experience.
Know the artist and know the work and if you feel they converge truthfully you are onto something. Gor's paintings dance between the figurative, the abstract and animism maybe. There is both clarity and distance in the paintings, a sharpness that glitters with life and a quiet melancholy that lingers. Rooted in something deeper than conventional frameworks, his work demands to be seen differently. In the end, the question is no longer whether it is good but how deeply it moves you and it demands your attention.
- Nicholas Logsdail, Founder and Director of Lamu Art and Cultural Project 2008
