We are delighted to be exhibiting the work of Samual Kai who is currently studying fine art at AUB. Sam visited Coastal Gallery last year and we were immediately impressed by his enthusiastic commitment and approach to his work. Here is an extract from Sam’s own diary notes which informed his painting and which acknowledges the influences of both Basquiat and Rauschenberg. We look forward to showing more examples of Sam’s painting and progress – including exhibiting with us at ArtSway 2017. My intention within this project was to convey the feelings and sentiments that comes with losing a close friend and confidante; that is to say that I wish wished to convey ‘grief’. I wished to allow this project to flow seamlessly from the last and so these two projects should be viewed together. I kept a diary from around the time of Daniel’s death. This diary recorded my thoughts, mostly in ambiguous drawings and short cryptic phrases to protect those involved. In places, I was more candid so I sealed these pages with tape or painted over in acrylic. These diary pages were used to inform a large painting on builder’s pallets. I wished to produce more paintings but I failed to do so. My only excuse was my low mood at the time. In an attempt to counter this effect, I initiated a new sketchbook entitled ‘Book of cartoons and shitty doodles when I’m too depressed to draw’ so that I could produce work without pressure of complying to an aesthetic style. This solution was only partially successful. I studied Francisco Goya’s series of prints entitled ‘Disasters of war’ and the additions made by the Chapman brothers to these iconic works. I hope that in doing so, I could convey some fraction of the horror that the Spanish master and contemporary British duo command. I failed to do so. I also gained inspiration from the prints and drawings by both Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin, in an attempt to imbue my drawings with a similar emotional potency. I (mostly) failed to do so. My painting was stylistically influenced by the neo-expressionists such as Jean Michel-Basquiat but also Robert Rauschenberg (who, despite not being considered a neo-expressionist, probably influenced Basquiat). 
