Sabri Sundos Finds Refuge in 'Chasing Flowers'
Sundos uses floral imagery to explore beauty, escape and political uncertainty.
Summary
Sabri Sundos’ Chasing Flowers uses floral imagery to explore beauty, escape and political uncertainty.
The Palestinian American artist blends painting, textiles and traditional craft to examine heritage, memory and identity.
The exhibition is on view at Fisk Gallery in Portland through September 5.
Portland’s Fisk Gallery recently opened Chasing Flowers, a new solo exhibition by New York-based Palestinian American artist Sabri Sundos.
The exhibition explores the tension between escape and engagement, using floral imagery as a symbol of beauty, refuge and resilience. Sundos presents flowers as moments of pause within a world shaped by constant demands, noise and political uncertainty. Their familiarity offers a temporary sense of calm, while the realities surrounding them continue to pull the viewer back.
Through this push and pull, beauty bcomes more than decoration. It serves as both a sanctuary and a quiet act of attention, reflecting on the difficulty of fully disengaging from the forces that shape everyday life.
Raised in the Palestinian diaspora, Sundos works across painting and textiles to examine heritage, memory, labor and time. His practice brings traditional craft into dialogue with cultural iconography, emphasizing the agency, tactility and human touch involved in making art.
By drawing on inherited techniques and familiar symbols, Sundos considers how creative practice can preserve cultural memory while opening space for new conversations around identity and belonging. His work ultimately carries an enduring sense of hope, positioning art as a means of reclaiming and sustaining heritage.
Chasing Flowers is open to the public through September 5 at Fisk Gallery, located inside Wieden+Kennedy in Portland.
Wieden+Kennedy
224 NW 13th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
