An American who has lived outside of America for more than fifteen years, Everitte Barbee takes seriously the implicit and explicit ideals of his home country. In fact, the rules of American, and indeed western,

society at large, seem to fascinate him; the rules, and how they are broken. While the form of his work rests comfortably within an established tradition of Arabic calligraphy, it is clear that the subject rests far outside of the Arab world, that American culture is Barbee’s central theme. Barbee’s evident fascination with the hypocrisy that he sees at the root of Western culture tracks through his art works - Arabic calligraphy satirizing American values. Yet, despite an evident ambivalence towards his home country, the work of Barbee is not cynical, rather is rooted in disappointment, a disappointment in that insincerity that he sees at the heart of a culture that he was born into, is somehow still a part of. And indeed, while Arabic calligraphy is perhaps his most sustained practice to date, his studies in technique are not limited to this genre, rather he is interested in the broader source of culture, the roots of the world. Why do we love art, he asks – a lack of comprehension, the sacred. Barbee longs for the sacred, a return to Eden, roots, something to hold on to.

His art works are rendered in a combination of carefully chosen and created materials; handmade acrylic paints, inks, and egg tempera, on a specific paper (Pergamanata) resembling vellum, canvas and wooden panels. The materials, like the art works themselves, are precise and careful, bordering on the obsessive, and tell a story of their own about the nature of art, roots, source. Through his artworks themselves, as well as his identity as an American artist living in Lebanon, Barbee seeks to challenge what he sees as the misleading narratives of the region that are often told to Americans. By living in the middle east, and in making the work that he does, he seeks to show America that they do not understand this world as well as they might think, to complicate narratives, open minds.

His message to America, the western world at large - Arab culture is deep, ancient and kind. There is a clarity in Barbee’s vision for a world without hypocrisy, seeking this through a return to art as sacred lack of comprehension. Until then, he will present his truth.