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Aleah
Koury
Aleah Koury comes from a diverse artistic background,
with a Bachelor Degree in Ceramics, & a Master’s
in Printmaking. This has encouraged him to be
bold in experimenting with new materials and
imagery. At various times, he has incorporated
collage, printing, found materials & a variety
of different types of paint media in his work.
A gifted colourist, over the past decade Koury
has increasingly been drawn to pastel as the
purest expression of the colourist’s art. By
the late 1980’s Koury had made a national reputation
with a series of abstracted landscapes called
“Skyscapes”. In these works the gesture of the
artist & the full brilliance of colour are revealed
in the unclouded intensity of the raw, pastel
pigment. Koury has further stretched the expressive
possibilities of pastel by combining it with
enamel & latex paints, gold, bronze and silver
leafing, oil pastel and pencil to create works
of spectacular richness and texture. The “Gardens”
and “Floral Still Life” series draw inspiration
from the 19th century French master Odilon Redon
as well as Koury’s own California garden & particularly
the exotic orchids, which he cultivates.
Koury has also turned to the subject of Koi,
producing works in which the brilliant colours
of the fish appear as dramatic visual counterpoints
against the soft colour-field abstraction of
the water. Koury has also continued to work
in a completely abstract idiom producing series
called “Organic Geometry”, “Way of Things” &
most recently “Oh Happy Days”. In all these
works it is the uninhibited sensuality of colour
that is the true subject, whether found in the
beauty of the natural world or the poetry of
the imagination.
Aleah Koury was born in Bellingham, Washington,
and spent his early childhood in California
before moving to the Midwest. In 1975, he received
a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University
of Missouri at Columbia and in 1980 a Master’s
from the University of Southern Illinois at
Edwardsville. Since that time Koury has lived
in California.
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