Tomm El-Saieh

Tomm El-Saieh’s dense, brightly colored abstract paintings are inspired by a variety of sources: the sublime ecstasy of Haitian Vodou trance, the rhythm of percussive music, and the repetitive style of traditional Haitian painting, as well as American abstraction. El-Saieh’s work has drawn the attention of curators around the United States, earning him a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami in 2017 and inclusion in the New Museum Triennial “Songs for Sabotage” in 2018. While his compositions appear solidly nonrepresentational, they may evoke bustling cityscapes or microscopic networks with closer examination. Born in Haiti and raised in Miami, El-Saieh maintains strong ties to his native country, where he and his family run an eponymous gallery opened by his jazz-musician grandfather in the 1950s.