Ecce Homo: Paintings by Chawky Frenn

September 22 - October 28, 2001

Chawky Frenn, Ton silence m'appelle, 1991

Ecce Homo is a collection of paintings by Lebanese-American artist Chawky Frenn. Assimilating the past and present, Frenn develops a foundation for his work by drawing upon his first twenty years growing up in Lebanon and his past twenty years living in the United States. The artist’s memories of devastation and cruelty are depicted, bringing to light the opposing forces of sacred beliefs and basic human rights, while searching for unity and meaning in a world filled with suffering and triumph.

As a teenager growing up in Zahle, Lebanon, Frenn was continually faced with the atrocities of war. Before immigrating to the United States in 1981, he was confronted with disturbing visions of people in his homeland being terrorized and killed in the name of God and Nation. Those memories have had a most profound effect upon his work.

Much of Frenn’s work is composed of juxtapositions of human figures and skulls, with broken pieces of dolls and marionette-like puppets often scattered throughout. The recurring images of the skeleton and the skull are direct expressions of his confrontations with death and mortality in war-torn Lebanon, while his depictions of dolls were inspired by a store-front window he happened upon in Rome during his post baccalaureate studies. He also regularly employs familiar images from Western art and religious iconography to create his complex scenes. At its core, Frenn’s work constantly challenges his viewer’s belief system, as he strives to offer insight without presenting answers in a world with no absolutes, only perpetual transformations.

Frenn received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art in 1985 and went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art- Temple Abroad, Rome, Italy in 1988. He went on to teach at various universities and held the position of Assistant Professor at Edinboro University from 1998-1999. Currently, Frenn is a Visiting Assistant Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. In 1996, he was the recipient of the Award for Excellence from the Hollis Arts Society in New Hampshire. Frenn has since had several solo and group exhibitions. His work has appeared in numerous magazines including The Boston Globe and New American Paintings.