Wasel Safwan
Wasel Safwan-Choi (born 9 August 1979) is an artist, a traveler, a knowledge seeker, and an architect from United Arab Emirates. He grew up in Al Ain city in the Al Muajei district, Abu Dhabi. He lives in Singapore with his wife, Rosa Safwan-Choi, who is an Artist Manager for Wasels' studio since 2011.
Wasel's studies in Architecture and in Anthropology has influenced his artworks. He CREATES drawings and paintings from his subconscious and mysterious world. The three-dimensional and The Two-dimensional elements are formed separately yet together during the process of creating his artworks.
Wasel has now exhibited in a number of solo and group exhibitions such as UAE Pavilion EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, WOMAD, Smalt Art 2009 at Vítkovice in the Czech Republic, Emirati Expressions 2009 at Emirates Palace, the French Art Festival 2008 in Abu Dhabi, Art Paris Abu Dhabi 2007 at Emirates Palace, and the solo exhibition titled "Constructivism and UAEism by Wasel ART" at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre. In 2001, he was awarded his first prize at the Inaugural Biennale Exhibition for Fine Arts, United Arab Emirates University. This was awarded to him by the president of the University, Sheikh Nahayan, at his palace in Abu Dhabi. He has been travelling to different parts of the world, living in different cultures, creating artworks, and documenting anthropological studies during his stays in Ostrava, Taman Negara Prague, Makkah, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hamburg, Melaka, Pokot, Nairobi, Beijing, Shanghai, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Changchun, Bahrain, Madinah, Rothenberg od der Tauber, Homs, Istanbul, Su-ngai Kolok, Dresden, Empty Quarter, & Cameron Highlands. He has given lectures and workshops through New York University, United Arab Emirates University, and the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.
He completed three pieces in the Art Cars; a Nissan Murano, painting a Ferrari Formula One racer and a 1959 Chevrolet Impala.
Wasel has stated that "Art is born from a respect for humanity; its colours correspond to different tongues in different conditions at the same time". He has been painting since he was 6 years old. In 2009, he was commissioned to paint level 84 of the tallest tower on Earth, the Burj Khalifa, 828 m (2,717 ft). Four artworks were produced, one of which had to contain the number 84 in both Arabic and English. In 2011, Wasel Safwan participated at a global conference TEDx "Ideas Worth Spreading".
On 15 August 2012, Wasel changed his name to Wasel Safwan-Choi in honor of his marriage to Rosa Choi.
Artworks
References
ar:واصل صفوان