About The Artist
Jude Zawaideh, a 22-year-old fine artist born in Amman, Jordan, captures the essence of the self in response to the physical body over time. Zawaideh creates enigmatic, vaguely familiar compositions that explore the multiplicity of reality and human consciousness, diving into the artist’s personal experiences within her reality. Viewers find themselves exchanging glances with the subjects immersed in scenes of uncomfortably formidable yet intensely introspective states. Zawaideh’s approach to art making is profoundly challenging yet innate: “Each painting is my way of allowing my mind to drift into unknowns I don’t consciously control, transmundane notions unravel within this space,” She said.
The artist shifts between the illusions of subjective and objective realities and the deception that accompanies existing as a self. With a focus on a contemporary figurative style, her work serves as a reflective medium that pushes towards notions such as self-awareness, inward looking examinations and curiosity.
“As you encounter my work, I tell the story of enigmatic figures that hold emphatic gazes with their viewers, and in that moment they hold an unspoken awareness of the silence they both share.”
Zawaideh uses oil paint as a medium which encompasses her love of the process and the patience it takes to get to know the subjects she paints. The bodily self is explored in Jude’s work as a channel between the internal and external worlds by its very nature. Her concepts acknowledge that an individual self exists through, in accordance with and because of the body. Many of her compositions depict the conflict between remaining grounded and the dissociation from one’s current reality through the maladapted subjects.
In her depictions of the physical and subconscious aspects of the self, Zawaideh utilizes compositional layers as an instinctual element of each piece, the layers are as unpredictable as the self. Viewers are faced with a composition that is - in and of itself - deceiving them in the layers that hide behind what it is they initially see.
“I look back at these versions of myself that have existed through time, and examine how much of these familiar faces hold a truth to my totality. Each composition serves as reminders of how precious every moment is in pursuit of meeting yourself once again.”