Felemez in Muharraq Nights: Where Words Become Color

On the opening day of Muharraq Nights 2025 today, Art Concept inaugurates the solo exhibition Erasing the Distance Between Word and Color at Maison Jamsheer, showcasing the work of Swiss–Syrian visual artist Deldar Felemez a painter, poet, and critic known for his unique fusion of poetry and abstraction. More than a painter, Felemez invites viewers on a visual and intellectual journey where words dissolve into color and thought meets emotion. His paintings become unwritten texts, spaces where language gains texture and color speak in silence. Each canvas challenges the boundaries of expression, exploring the dialogue between word and thought, memory and dream, logic and intuition a search for meaning that unites art and language as two faces of the same truth.

Poetry as a Lifelong Source of Vision

During his conversation with TDT, Felemez explained that poetry has never been a passing influence in his practice. It remains a central and evolving reference that continues to shape his artistic vision. He consistently returns to poetic experience its images, rhythms, and emotional depth as a way to renew his creative process. Rather than illustrating poetry directly, he engages with its atmosphere and inner pulse, translating its essence into layered abstractions and color fields. This sustained relationship with the written word forms the foundation of his visual language.

 From Poetry to Canvas: The Bahrain Chapter

Erasing the Distance Between Word and Color marks a pivotal chapter in Felemez’s career. His admiration for Bahraini poet Qassim Haddad, particularly the collection Distance Therapy, guided the emotional and conceptual framework of this body of work. He approaches Haddad’s texts intuitively listening to their silence, cadence, and emotional gravity and converts these elements into form, gesture, and space. The exhibition presents thirty canvas works alongside more than two hundred pieces on brown paper, reflecting a delicate balance between intuition and structure. Felemez also spoke about how life in Switzerland shaped his creative process. Positive isolation offered him space to think and rebuild, allowing him to preserve the emotional landscape of his identity while expanding his artistic perspective. His multicultural experience became an asset one that deepened his understanding of connection, memory, and displacement. His long-standing relationship with Qassim Haddad reflects a partnership built on mutual respect. “Haddad would look at the work and give general notes not to correct the artwork, but to share insight,” Felemez explained. It was a dialogue between equals, a conversation between poetry and painting.

 An Experience Larger Than a Canvas

The creative journey is not contained within a single painting: “The entire experience is what shapes a personal and private feeling for me,” he said. Each phase brings transformation. Challenges inside his studio what he calls “the real battlefield” push him toward new understandings of himself and his work. He believes that the authenticity of artistic struggle is what ultimately reaches the viewer.

New Horizons and Expanding Narratives

Looking ahead, Felemez reveals an exciting new project with a translator friend, inspired by an upcoming novel. He has already created over fifty works for this venture, marking a bold step into unexplored territory. He also hints at future projects that celebrate cultural plurality and continue to expand his artistic vocabulary. In his advice to the new generation, Felemaz told TDT: “The most important thing is to find a visual language and stay honest with yourself. Develop your tools… Passion matters. Honest work reaches others quickly it announces its own birth.”

Between East and West: A Continuing Story

Deldar Felemez’s artistic journey is not simply a story of identity it is a continuous path of searching for truth, visual sincerity, and inspiration drawn from text, memory, and image. His presence in Muharraq Nights marks a new chapter in this journey, offering audiences a rare opportunity to witness an artist who paints not only what he sees, but what connects us all.

This art does more than show the world it lights a path. It reminds us to communicate across differences, respect one another, and embrace diversity. Our shared uniqueness is what unites us. Felemez’s work is a fiery call to keep dialogue alive and believe in the future. Through his art, he inspires us to take the future into our hands, stand together, and shape a world of unity and hope.