Love is blue

And vast. How can you forget?

infinite, ever-expanding. Blue in green

and one of my favorite bass lines, blue in the tide,

endless, timeless, above and below me. 

A blue that breathes and laughs and cries.

A blue with an end and a beginning, longing,

reaching, bellowing, undulating. 

Blue in solace and uncertainty.

Blue in forgetting, remembering,

all the things I’ve wanted to tell you.

Blue in gentleness, a deepness with no words,

In places I cannot reach, a blue in the last time.

Dreams of blue, floating surrounded 

by a cool blue night,

crystal water true blue.

Leaving is blue.

-Muyassar Kurdi

New York, NY, August 31, 2023 – La MaMa Galleria is honored to present Love Is Blue. Love is Blue, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist Muyassar Kurdi, is an interdisciplinary exhibition which meets at the intersection of film, photography, and painting - blurring the lines and connecting across modalities. At the center of these cinematic works is embodiment, liberation, and a process of decolonization through the lens of an Arab-American woman. It presents a meditation on the color blue, literally and figuratively, and aims to move beyond borders and walls. Experimentation, intuition, and improvisation is at its heart, stepping into the unknown: a ritual and an act of rebellion. 

Love is Blue presents aliveness across mediums that emanates empowerment and freedom. Analog photographs paired as diptychs explore nature in relation to the body by pulling the viewer into intimate spaces juxtaposed with vast open landscapes. The geography of the body, boundless, shameless, an attempt at reclaiming her narrative. "Love is Blue", a song by the jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, adds to the musicality behind this exhibition displaying large-scale oil paintings with sounding gestures and featuring graphic scores that were recently performed at Roulette Intermedium as part of Kurdi’s 2022-23 artist residency. This will be Muyassar Kurdi’s first solo exhibition at La MaMa Galleria. 

For press inquiries, images and interview request, please contact the gallery at

lamamagalleria@gmail.com

Program:

Love Is Blue is on view at La MaMa Galleria from August 31 through September 22, 2023

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 31, 2023 from 6pm - 8pm

Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday 1pm - 7 pm, or by appointment

Artist Discussion: Body Poetics

Moderated by Art Jones and Anna Lustberg

Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 4:00pm