NEWS
NEW YORK, October 10, 2022
MAJOR JOINT EXHIBITION PRESENTS WORKS NEVER SHOWN BEFORE
OF AHMED YACOUBI ALONG WITH HIS CHAMPION, CAROL CANNON
For the first time in 35 years work by the remarkable abstract painter Ahmed Yacoubi will be on display in Long Island City’s STUDIO 34, accompanied by big-brush paintings by Carol Cannon. From November 3 - 14
GROK TWICE will showcase never-seen-before paintings and drawings of this internationally known Moroccan artist, interspersed with the spontaneous ink work of his one-time partner and lifelong advocate. At 7 pm, Cannon will present an Artist’s Talk about Yacoubi’s history and their work.
Ahmed ben driss El Yacoubi had a profound effect on Cannon’s life and art, their having lived and painted together for seven years and continuing as collaborators until his early death in 1985 at age 57. This unveiling of his finely layered oil paintings and her equally innovative ink work is a culmination of a relationship that began 45 years ago.
The title of the show ?Grok Twice" employs science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein’s invented word—"grok", meaning to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy. In this case, the suggestion is rather than thinking twice to arrive at understanding, one can grasp an artist’s intention so intuitively that one experiences exactly what the artist meant at the time of execution. If at all in doubt, one looks again—groks again— and merges with the creation to experience a meaning beyond words.
Parallel Lives, ink on rice paper, 51.5” X 26”
Razor Man, oil on linen, 10” X 8”, 1978
Grok Twice gives viewers the opportunity to see two different intuitive artists’ processes at play side-by-side. Yacoubi’s panoplies of abstract imagery that captivate through a sleight of hand technique are a result of the artist listening to his instincts and imagination, responding to a form of kinesthetic “dictation.” In Cannon’s approach, big-brush gestures convey a dynamic energy, often in a single stroke, that viewers inevitably follow through the brush’s path and experience the fueled impulse, invited by an element such as wind or an expanded state of consciousness from a meditation, but never anything preconceived. The Japanese refer to this as “muga” (it is not I that is doing this), opening the gate for necessary truth to flow in.
The works shown together illustrate the evolution of two artists from two very different cultures, generations, and genders who, in a sincere search to express their inner truth, discovered very different techniques that give voice to their common source of inspiration – a spiritual ideal that imbues their pieces with ineffable meaning and value.
The exhibit takes place in the historical Pierce Arrow building in Long Island City that houses the handsome gallery space named Studio 34 on the 4th floor, conveniently a few blocks past the foot of the Queensborough Bridge on Northern Boulevard and only two subway stops from Bloomingdale’s. The space’s configuration and lighting highlight the oil paintings and drawings done between 1965 and 1985 by this widely collected artist and recent ink and acrylic work of Cannon’s made over the past fifteen years.
This exhibition furthers Cannon’s four-decade intention to remind the art world of this giant of an abstract painter, while presenting her own work in relation to Yacoubi’s, hopefully encouraging other female artists to emerge out from the shadow of a strong, male artist and to stand in their own light.