David Abed’s figures are often seen in water, though whether surfacing or submerging into the depths, we can never know. Working in the symbolist tradition, he is depicting either a slow, primordial beginning or humanity’s ultimate end. His palette is muted, shadowed; violet, blue, and black. Light finds its way through only in small glimpses, leaving the viewer disoriented, unsure whether it’s twilight or dawn. A gossamer-winged moth alights within the dark recesses of a skull; a woman carries her babies into the water, her intentions unclear. Offering no answers, Abed slips quietly between the realms of life and death, of hope and despair.
Abed completed a fine art degree from Illinois Institute of Art in 1992 and four additional years of training at the School of Representational Art, an atelier system of art instruction started by artist Bruno Surdo.