- Apr 2

Gilbert Loutfy

Gilbert Loutfy is an emerging artist who works as a painter, sculptor, and interior designer. His works remain in numerous private collections in Beirut and throughout Lebanon. His eclectic body of art ranges from intricate designs to expressionism, realism, and abstraction. Although the work is varied and somewhat inconsistent, his art bears signature marks and stylized distortions easily recognizable as belonging to Gilbert’s hands.

What unifies Gilbert’s art can be seen through a distinct recreational aspect or Lebanese intricacy. His paintings may sometimes depict snowboarding, swimming, balloon riding, or boat riding while his more abstract works may reflect Lebanese or contemporary design elements. Gilbert’s abstract works show inspiration by contemporary middle eastern architecture with roof tops displaying intricate patterns and a mix between warm and neutral colors in which he portrays against grayish negative space. The sculptures convey Gilbert’s signature distortions or intricate designs.

Blue Moments (pictured above) reflects a group of people jumping off a cliff into a body of water for recreation or perhaps swimmers swimming along a coral reef and cliff edge. Either interpretation could be taken from the work, what remains the most striking would be the way the earth is portrayed with globs of abstraction represented in geometry, drips, and splatter of paint. The economical use of the paint reveals much of the white of the canvas as an integral part of the painting reflecting water and light. With a palette consisting of mostly cerulean blue and lemon yellow, Gilbert expresses a moment in time with motion, minimal paint, and clever use of negative space.

The Instructions (pictured above) represents snowboarders decked out in full gear from head to toe. Almost appearing as recreational or colorful soldiers, the athletes prepare with snowboards in arms standing in a line as if waiting to board a snow lift. The preparation and anticipation towards their journey down the slope remains represented in the painting with their heads in different positions indicating anxiety or excitement about their future manic thrill of sliding down the snowy slope. Their boards reflect personality with various artistic designs and the snow sprinting across their helmets and jackets with colorful splatters of paint. The Instructions reflect a moment in time towards a stated goal of recreational thrill, a painting about anticipation, the scene before the final act.

Landing in Beirut (pictured above) depicts the overhead view of an airplane flying over Lebanese architecture. The rooftops depicted in the forms of middle eastern rug designs and distorted perspective in the tradition of Cézanne. There remains minimal linear qualities dividing the composition into a lower case t-shape. Warm neutral colors blanket against solid shapes of white and variations of gray in the background. A very flat painting which represents a bridge between painterly abstraction and intricate design elements.

Gilbert Loutfy creates spirited art often with dynamic expressionism and spatial, colorful brush strokes which accentuate the subject matter. From playfulness to playful design, and a wide range of subject matter and approaches, Gilbert shows the viewer he maintains a vision despite working with inconsistency and sporadic concepts. With flavorful twists and a skilled hand, Gilbert expresses life through extended distortions and economical application.