10 Questions with Ivad Bassil

From mixed media on canvas, wooden sculptures, and murals to digital graphic art and photography, Ivad Bassil tells his story in various forms and shapes. His artwork is constantly evolving, driven by tireless personal quests and an unbound curiosity for new techniques.

Born in Lebanon in 1993, he moved to Italy at the age of 19 to pursue an education in Fine Arts, motivated by a deep desire to escape his territorial reality. As the questions piled up amidst the consequent culture shock and the sources of inspiration tripled, his artistic capabilities flourished, and so grew his interest in digital design and photography.

Minimalist, creative, and impactful is how his art thrives the most, but his design and services remain driven by an endless devotion to customer satisfaction. With strong attention to detail, he puts it as a personal priority to provide top-level, innovative, and relatable art creations, whether for his client or his personal project.

@ivadbassil

ARTIST STATEMENT

Ivad tells his story in various forms. His artwork is constantly evolving, bringing the invisible to the canvas, his inner world. The discomfort he feels in this "Suspended Time" since the pandemic began is crystallized and neutralized in his Land of Wonders, Wonderland. We turned away from our affections out of fear to protect ourselves. Ivad, in his studio, began to "see," with the eyes of his creativity, the world in his own way. Like a child, he captured the negative energy of the lockdown and transformed it into Beauty, Construction, Positivity, and Dialogue. He dreams of the possibility of a new beginning, of trust in others, of purity and innocence. By painting with saturated, full, strong colors, Ivad wants to convey joy, freedom, and serenity — A philosophy, a way of being, an ideal world full of desires of love and fraternity, a Wonderland.

Wonderland 11, Mix Media, 70x100 cm, 2021 © Ivad Bassil

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. How did you start getting involved with art? And when did you realize you wanted to be an artist?

I'm Ivad Bassil; I was born in Lebanon, in a small village in the North surrounded by nature and an amazing sea view; from my early childhood, I was always passionate about painting and art, and I was always dreaming of studying art in Italy. At the age of 19, I moved to Milan, where I got my first and second degrees in fine Arts from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera Milano.

You are originally from Lebanon but studied fine art in Italy. How do these different countries influence your work?

Being from a country and moving to another one to live in can affect you so much; cultural conflict inside you will lead you to build a new personality, keeping what you like from your culture and taking what you like from the new one. It makes you always search for a lot of answers and understand a lot of questions you have always been asking yourself. As an artist, this move helped me a lot to find myself.

Wonderland 14, Mix Media, 140x160 cm, 2021 © Ivad Bassil

How would you define yourself as an artist? What differentiate you from the others?

I feel like I'm always evolving; after each new life experience, I become a totally new version of myself. After my move to Italy, art became for me not just a passion but a way to discover myself and have an answer to a lot of questions, and I can say that I'm in a continued shedding, "Known unknown" and "The wonderland" series are the result of life experience that affected me so much and forced me to express my self deeply by a long series of artworks for years. In some ways, I'm trying just to be myself and tell my own story.

You work with colorful abstractions in painting. What messages do you want to convey?

My artwork is constantly evolving. I bring the invisible to the canvas, my inner world. The discomfort I feel in this "Suspended Time" is crystallized and neutralized in my Land of Wonders, Wonderland. We turned away from our affections out of fear to protect ourselves. I, in my studio, began to "see," with the eyes of my creativity, the world in my own way. Like a child, I capture negative energies and transform them into Beauty, Construction, Positivity, and Dialogue. I dream of the possibility of a new beginning, of trust in others, of purity and innocence. By painting with saturated, full, strong colors, I want to convey joy, freedom, and serenity - a philosophy, a way of being, an ideal world full of desires of love and fraternity.

Where do you get your inspiration from, both visually and conceptually? Are there any artists or designers you particularly look up to?

Anything around me in my daily life can be inspiring, sometimes things or situations. In general, my research or my concept comes first based on what I am experiencing at the moment, then comes my visual inspiration to help my research or poetics take shape.
I don't have a specific artist who inspired me the most. Every period I get inspired by a new artist.

Tell us more about your creative process. What are the steps that lead you to the final work?

Everything starts with a need to express something; a feeling, bad or good, is not necessary; I try to write what I feel at this specific moment, and I try to study this situation more, always with small drawings, then I start slowly expressing it more and more on different formats with different material here my visual inspiration start playing its role. The more I paint and express, the more I feel I need to go deeper in my research, so I can never say that I have reached a final work.

Judging from your statement, the Covid pandemic and consequent lockdowns have significantly impacted your work. How did these influence your practice?
Did you learn anything from the Covid experience that has perpetually changed your approach to art and art making?

The discomfort I felt in the Suspended Time of Covid I crystallized and neutralized in my Land of Wonders, Wonderland.
Covid showed us how vulnerable and similar we are as human beings. This gave me more confidence to express my own vulnerability on the canvass because I knew I wasn't alone in feeling this way.

Wonderland 21, Mix Media, 140x160 cm, 2021 © Ivad Bassil

Is there any other technique, medium, or concept you would like to experiment with?

I have been using mixed media techniques for more than ten years in my art; at the moment, I am turning my art to digital too, not just on canvas; the same series can contain digital and physical art.

Finally, what are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

I'm currently still developing my Wonderland series with different techniques and formats, getting out from the geometrical format of a canvas. Sometimes, I can say that I'm trying to express my Wonderland series in Sculpture too.

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