Zohdy Qadry

"for the sake of good order"

The David Lopatie International Conference Center, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot

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Geometric structures found in a kind of delicate balance — or not far from it — have comprised the works of Zohdi Qadry in recent years. The straight lines, the precise color surfaces create a sense of “good order”; of being able to predict what’s to come; of a known and safe set of rules that—if only we learn and apply them properly—we can guarantee ourselves a “good life”.

But within the apparent order across most of the canvas, hidden forces creep in whose actions are evident here and there, in hidden corners, at the ends of the “melted” lines, in fluidities that hint at threats of destruction, and in spots of color that reveal the truth that we tried to sweep beneath the surface, and which insist on rising up and confronting us with reality. Yet the direction in Qadry’s works is not clear-cut: it may be an existing order that is being weakened and gone—but it is also possible that it is a new order, emerging and organizing itself out of a state of uncertainty and disorder.

Zohdy Qadry was born and raised in Kfar Nahaf in the Galilee, and studied art in St. Petersburg, Russia. Today he lives and works in Nefat. His creations maintain a continuous connection with the past, present—and future of Arab society in Israel in particular, and of the Palestinian people in general. However, his work also shows an attempt to free himself from questions of identity and belonging, and to focus on universal and individual aspects of his freedom as a person and an artist.