Tomm El-Saieh: Imaginary City

From January 29, 2022 – January 1, 2023, The Clark Art Institute presents a solo exhibition by Tomm El-Saieh, titled Imaginary City.

The large-format, abstract paintings of Tomm El-Saieh teem with dense and dynamic marks that evoke ornament, language, and architecture. By variously layering and erasing his linework, and using vibrant color to optically push or pull his pictures, El-Saieh creates rhythmic, all-over compositions from which larger forms appear to emerge—testing both the limits of our perception and our expectations about abstraction.

The exhibition title, which comes from one of the works in the show, refers to a cityscape theme common in Haitian art (Vilaj Imaginé). El-Saieh’s paintings, which resemble informal urban plans, likewise develop intuitively, without the use of preparatory studies or outlines. For the artist, who has been unable to return to his birthplace in recent years as a result of the instability there, Port-au-Prince now also exists mainly as a figure in his memory and imagination—a site of joy and trauma, potential and uncertainty.

For more information about the exhibition, please visit the Clark Institute's website.