Introducing…Lina Ogaily
September 7, 2014
Bedrush Gashi Memorial
September 12, 2018
Lina Ogaily
Faces
by Laura Trelford
Like many contemporary artists, Lina Ogaily’s online presence is astonishing. She is very active on Facebook, where anyone can be an art critic. You can read people’s opinions of her work on the guest page of her own website and on ArtSlant. In this virtual world an artist can develop quite a following without displaying their work physically. Can online viewers really appreciate a painting? How does such casual, immediate commentary affect the critical reception of an artist?
In the flesh, what initially hits you is the onslaught of colour, a disparate, chaotic and almost random concoction of hues often thickly applied with the finger or palette knife and standing up from the surface. Then follow the powerful, slightly disconcerting focus and intensity of an eye staring at you full face. All facial features are somewhat exaggerated – lips and nose along with the eye and eyebrow – but in the swirl of lines running in different directions
they become abstract shapes. This is the effect of Faces by Lina Ogaily, who has been diligently painting in Dubai for the past ten years.