Sharif Farrag: Drawings and Vessels

In Sharif Farrag’s ceramic universe, the garden represents a space of both quietude and conflict.  

Amongst the bugs, soil, vines and flowers the garden embodies attraction and fertilization, growth and productivity, death and decay. In his new exhibition Drawings and Vessels, Farrag returns to this garden, expanding his elaborate vocabulary of richly detailed porcelain and stoneware with a series of new works on paper. François Ghebaly is proud to present the exhibition online on Gallery Platform Los Angeles, and in person by appointment at the gallery. 

Farrag’s work wells up from depths of personal experience. His hybrid forms speak to the second generation American experience, a prismatic refraction of his Syrian-Egyptian parentage, his San Fernando Valley upbringing, skater culture and graffiti, Syrian textiles and bakhoor. Certain figures recur as alter egos, giving form and outlet to his angels and demons. Here as ever, Farrag consistently pushes the expressive potential of clay with painterly glazing and intricately interpenetrating forms.

Sharif Farrag was born in 1993 in Reseda, California and received a BFA from the University of Southern California in 2018. Farrag was an artist in residence at California State University, Long Beach’s Center for Contemporary Ceramics from 2018 to 2020, and in 2019 he was awarded a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His solo exhibitions include François Ghebaly, Los Angeles; In Lieu, Los Angeles; The Pit, Los Angeles; and 356 Mission, Los Angeles. Farrag lives and works in Los Angeles, California.