The Line Starts Here draws on anthropologist Marc Augé’s “non-places,” spaces of transience like supermarkets, airports and chain stores, where people pass through anonymously, unmoored from local history, or a relationship to the land. These paintings ask how such places shape who we are, individually and collectively.

Each painting begins with drawing from observation. Trader Joe’s started as quick sketches made while standing in line at an overcrowded Manhattan supermarket, then grew in the studio from the red of the shopping carts and the black of winter coats. The IKEA paintings zero in on shoppers testing beds, chairs and sofas, a person lying down, a couple settling onto a couch, intimate moments performed in public. Working at life size with a vibrant  palette and a painting knife, Bassel sets the sensual life of paint against the anonymity of these spaces. Reviewed in Arts in Bushwick.