The painting was created across the two days of WISH 2018 (November 13-14, 2018) in Qatar National Convention Center by London-based Colombian fine artist Dairo Vargas. As part of the process, Vargas called on participants in WISH 2018 to take up a paintbrush and be part of the creation of the painting.
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF); Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of QF; and record-breaking Olympic swimming gold medalist Michael Phelps were among those invited by the artist to add their brushstroke. In all, more than 250 people contributed to the finished artwork.
Dairo Vargas’s work casts a connection with our behavior in modern society. Vargas is interested in the representation of external responses from internal experience and vice versa. Each image he creates gives access to subconscious memories and emotions. His paintings appear to be either in stillness or movement and the fluid brushstrokes invite the viewer to reflect on personal memory and encourage introspection.
Vargas uses gestural free association to represent the mind at the point it connects to a higher energy, releasing unlimited thoughts and emotions. Vargas' work has been shown in London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Doha, Dubai and Hong Kong and features in multiple private collections.
Selected exhibitions: Romantic Twists, Eclectic Gallery, London (2021); Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Art, London (2020); Consciousness, Museo del Marletto, Italy (2019); Moniker Art Fair, London, U.K. (2019); Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong (2019).