Abdul Bas

ABDUL BAS (Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela - 1981).
Untitled, from the series "Cincinnatireds", 2003.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed, dated and titled on the back.
Measurements: 110 x 75 cm.

The series linked to the Cincinnati Reds is a collection of paintings that pays visual homage to the legendary Cincinnati Reds baseball team and its dynasty of the 1970s, integrating this sports iconography within the artist's personal pictorial universe. In these works the symbols of baseball (players, references to the team and its culture) are intertwined with his interest in American popular culture, expressing the energy and audacity of that sports group through his intense and figurative style, with compositions that blend sport, cultural memory and his own visual language marked by the power of the image and the aesthetics of the American dream.

Abdul Bas, Abdul Vas or Abdul Bass, born in Venezuela, grew up between Suriname, Guyana and Belgium. He lives and works between Amsterdam and Madrid. He studied fine arts at EAVRA, Maracay, and later at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. He has created handmade books and fanzines, photographs, collages, drawings, paintings, murals and sculptures. Since 2004 the artist has had several solo exhibitions in galleries in Europe and America, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. In 2009, he was selected for the Peking Biennial; the same year, he exhibited My 57 States AC/DC (Georgetown, Guyana). Since 2010 he has been working on the project North-American Truckers and AC/DC Power, exhibited at Disk Union (Tokyo, Japan). AC/DC 40th Anniversary is part of the ArtNou project, organized by the Art Barcelona gallery association.