The Third Line presents a solo exhibition of new paintings by Golnaz Fathi at Sultan Gallery, Kuwait. Fathi incorporates bold strokes and traditional calligraphy which resonates raw emotion and silenced expression in her series of new works.

After several series executed primarily in black and white, with only occasional and cautious uses of red, Fathi’s current series, Ride Like the Wind, erupts with a broad spectrum of colour against a backdrop of thick, black strokes and illegible text.  Splashes of green, blue, purple and red are loudly introduced, dripping down and spreading with veins across the canvas. Her once tight, almost obsessively repetitive lines are now replaced with grandeur sweeping forms, layered with an abandon and frenzy that is tempered by Fathi’s strong intuitive sense of arrangement.

In some works, Fathi divides the canvas with a thin steady line, separating opposing fields which share a common yet disoriented background. Continuing her practice of utilizing expressive calligraphic forms to blur between the legible and illegible, the dramatic flow of colour and line creating a visual struggle.

The dominating colour stream brightly opposes the congregation of black lines, creating a sense of a one-sided struggle within the compositional space. Enter the thickness and force of the rounded black script - counteracting the imbalance – as the colour trail retreats to the edges. The power struggle shifts throughout the paintings; stronger and overbearing in one and losing ground in another. Yet amidst the turmoil there is a strength and vibrancy that cannot be contained resulting in a compromised balance.

Fathi’s work entails script that has been perfected on two levels: the painterly range of strokes and gestures, and the technical mastery with the script. She has then incorporated the element of colour which interweaves into an imposing relationship of aesthetic complement and divided energy. The result is of the raw beauty apparent in these works; a silver lining amongst the chaos.   

Golnaz Fathi

A trained calligrapher, Fathi has the ability to skilfully transform known language into form and composition. Having first discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran’s Azad University, she later left to train for six years at the Calligraphy Association of Iran. Practicing the script for over seven hours a day eventually paid off – she was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat (a genre of calligraphy) – but she soon tired of the discipline’s rules and regulations. Hence, she created a new form of expression in her paintings; an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance.


Her paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known coded alphabet. The strength of her work stems from the drive to express emotions that cannot be pinned down into words. Fathi's works succeeds where language fails. She has exhibited in a number of international shows, recently in New York, Geneva, London, and Doha and participated in the International Woman Artists’ Biennial, South Korea. Fathi currently lives and works in Iran.