Ramsey Chahine is a Lebanese American artist who lives and works in New York City. His paintings are marked by the relentless pursuit of an ideal, with most paintings containing multiple painted-over images hidden below the surface. This layering process creates complex textured compositions that evoke an aura of secrecy paralleling his deep interest in analytical psychology and the human unconscious.
A true believer that art is not created but revealed, Chahine has a classical view of the creative process, seeing art primarily as a product of the muses. Furthermore he contends that although the true essence of life is within us, our ability to know will always elude even our most impassioned conscious efforts.
His Self-Portraits are innately performative, showcasing multiple transformations as Chahine personally models a variety of characters and archetypes through wardrobe, makeup, and impersonation. With self-portraits at the center of his practice, Chahine embraces the dark side of selfie culture, inverting the narcissistic impulse with rigorous and ruthless unrelenting and sincere self-examination.
A self taught artist, Chahine is naturally driven to communicate as an individual with limited establishment influence. Alongside his visual arts practice he is also a decorated martial artist, an experienced ultrarunner, and an avid reader and writer in the fields of religion, psychology and philosophy.