Elias Izoli @ Ayyam Gallery, Dubai - "Inside Out '25" Exhibition

Elias Izoli

Inside Out '25

Ayyam Gallery, Dubai

18 September - 7 November 2025

Ayyam Gallery presents Inside Out '25 an exhibition featuring Elias Izoli’s most recent body of work. After a long hiatus from painting, Izoli returns with a new body of work centered around the circus of life.

A childhood fascination evolved into a profound reflection on the unpredictability and complexity of life as a Syrian citizen. In his latest series, Izoli uses the circus as a metaphor: its performers, from tightrope walkers to clowns and magicians, embody the tension between joy and survival. The circus and its family become a symbol of the broader social body, with each character representing the individuals who comprise the state’s fabric. With concealed motives that slowly unravel under closer inspection, Izoli reveals an environment we, as spectators, have only observed from the outside. He invites us inside the fortress-like walls, offering a view from within.

Rendered in his signature fragmented color style, each painting presents a portrait that speaks to resilience, illusion, and the spectacle of existence. Figures of entertainment, marred by despair and sadness, mirror Izoli’s reflections on the toll conflicts have on everyday life. Some hide behind curtains, others peer out, offering viewers a guarded gaze from within a fortress-like world. Each character remains confined within their own space, some carry suitcases, others’ gaze looms over the big top. Every gesture reflects the emotional heaviness and psychological barriers imposed by our world. The figures seem unable to escape or engage with a reality beyond their own, a world that exists within the fragile yet resilient walls of the circus tent.

Beyond their colorful attire, the circus troupe imagined by Izoli reveals deeper emotions: manipulation, sorrow, and anxiety juggle between the characters’ hands. Distraught feelings resurface, and the figures cease to represent joy or entertainment. Instead, they juggle life’s weight together with their daily struggles. Balance is key to this new take on Izoli’s distinctive use of collage-style painting. It emerges through the interplay between the vibrancy and coolness of his color palette, the joy and sorrow expressed through his chosen characters, and the tension between manipulation and the direct figurative clarity of his themes.

The roundness present in their bodies does not reflect an idealized physiology, but rather the emotional and psychological weight borne by these characters. A symbol of the quiet toll exacted by prolonged conflict and persistent worry in a world imposed upon us. It is this gravity that tethers them, making it difficult to envision an end to their actions as they juggle, balance, and navigate day-to-day realities that offer little to no means of escape.

This series marks a new direction in Izoli’s practice, yet remains rooted in the influence of those who came before him. The theme of balance resurfaces through a contemporary reinterpretation of Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, now reimagined in the shape-shifting form of a clown. Like a joker card in a game, the two paintings featuring this clown figure act as wildcards, capable of ending this tumultuous spectacle of emotions. Manipulation takes center stage in these works: vibrant colors, playful acts, and magical illusions draw the viewer in, only to mask the deeper realities beneath the surface. In this swirling performance, joy and despair are intertwined, both performed and concealed at once.

Artist Elias Izoli

Hypnotizing in their emotional depth, Elias Izoli’s works captivate viewers through melancholic facial expressions that reflect intrinsic thoughts.

Izoli’s painting technique can be described as a hybrid, interweaving traditional painting methods with elements of collage. Canvas cutouts form the base pattern upon which his subjects emerge. From children to circus performers, Izoli continuously shifts his focus to different figures while maintaining a consistent intention: to draw viewers into the emotional world of his subjects and create an environment in which both artwork and audience emotionally co-exist. Izoli’s subjects provoke a subtle sense of intrusion, yet they foster a strong empathetic connection with the viewer. The melancholic atmosphere, combined with his signature muted palette, invites the audience into these intimate and emotionally charged spaces.

His fascination with his predecessor, Louay Kayyali, led him to create a series using the same techniques and muted color palette that have defined his work since the beginning of his career. In this series, Izoli adopts Kayyali’s curvaceous, fluid forms to depict human figures, reflecting on the consumerist state of the world, a condition that erodes compassion and empathy, themes omnipresent in Izoli’s art.

After a long hiatus caused by the emotional and psychological toll of the Syrian conflict, Izoli has reclaimed his artistic voice, breathing new life into his canvases. His recent depictions of circus performers place life in a delicate balance, echoing the instability and tension inherent in each act portrayed. Melancholy once again pervades the works, etched into the grimaces of characters who, despite being symbols of joy and entertainment, radiate nostalgia and deep sadness.

Born in 1976, Elias Izoli lives and works in Damascus, Syria. Since 1993, his works have been showcased in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including several at Ayyam Gallery in Beirut and Dubai (2010, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2018). 

AYYAM GALLERY 

B11, Alserkal Avenue, Street 8, Al Quoz Industrial 1, Dubai

www.ayyamgallery.com

Now Showing: Youssef Nabil's I Saved My Belly Dancer LACMA, Los Angeles - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Now Showing: Youssef Nabil’s I Saved My Belly Dancer 

LACMA, Los Angeles

Through January 11, 2026

Youssef Nabil

I Saved My Belly Dancer #XXIV, 2015

Courtesy of the artist

© Youssef Nabil

Youssef Nabil

I Saved My Belly Dancer #II, 2015

Courtesy of the artist

© Youssef Nabil

Youssef Nabil

I Saved My Belly Dancer #XXV, 2015

Courtesy of the artist

© Youssef Nabil

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Now Showing: Youssef Nabil’s I Saved My Belly Dancer, the first public presentation of the film since it entered the museum’s collection in 2025. The exhibition is centered around Nabil’s film, I Saved My Belly Dancer (2015), which marks its 10th anniversary this year. Tahar Rahim, who resembles Nabil, embodies the artist’s alter ego, while Salma Hayek stars as the titular belly dancer. For Youssef Nabil, the dancer represents both a remembered and an imagined memory of Cairo. He states, “I wanted to talk about belly dancing as an art form that is probably unique to us [Egypt]. It’s our dance. I’ve always loved it. So, I wanted to talk about saving the idea of belly dancing in my memory, more than anything.” 

The installation of Now Showing intends to evoke the type of mid-20th-century movie theater, including retro seats, contemporaneous with the Egyptian films that inspired the works in the exhibition. The space contains a photographic portrait of the director, hand-colored by Nabil’s mentor, Van Leo, and vintage movie posters. Additionally, the exhibition features photographs, based on the film, created by Nabil’s signature practice of hand-painting on silver gelatin prints rendered dreamlike by the unearthly intensity and tonality of the color palette. This is a revival of a mid-20th century technique associated with such Cairo-based photographers as Van Leo (Levon Alexander Boyadjian (1921–2002)).

This presentation continues LACMA’s history of exploring how film and popular culture interrelate with traditional areas of art from all periods and cultures. Over the past 30 years, the museum has acquired time-based media objects in nearly every curatorial department, including Nam June Paik’s Video Flag Z (1986), Matthew Barney’s REPRESSIA (decline) (1991), Bill Viola’s Slowly Turning Narrative (1992), and Mariko Mori’s Miko no Inori (1996), as well as works by Tacita Dean, Stan Douglas, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Marclay, Steve McQueen, Bruce Nauman, and Diana Thater.

Artist Youssef Nabil

Born in Cairo in 1972, Youssef Nabil began his career as a photographer in 1992, shooting his friends and creating scripts for them to perform, inspired by films from Egypt, Europe, and Hollywood. He developed a distinctive style by hand-painting gelatin silver prints reminiscent of glamorous celebrity portraits from the 1940s and ’50s, a technique he mastered through his friendship with renowned studio photographer Van Leo (Levon Alexander Boyadjian (1921–2002)). In 2003, Youssef Nabil left Cairo for an art residency in Paris, where he began taking self-portraits, addressing more personal issues of identity and displacement. Nabil continued his artistic practice in New York, where he lived from 2006 to 2018. His artistic practice addresses universal themes of absence, nostalgia, and cultural identity, while maintaining strong connections to his Egyptian heritage. Youssef Nabil has continued to draw inspiration from cinema, making portraits of contemporary film stars and artists, such as Catherine Deneuve, Omar Sharif, and Marina Abramovic. He also makes video works, collaborating frequently with actor Tahar Rahim. Currently, he is working on his first feature film, which will be multilingual and partially filmed in Egypt. Today Youssef Nabil resides between Paris and New York.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is curated by Linda Komaroff, Curator and Department Head, Art of the Middle East, LACMA.

LACMA - LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART 

5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90036 

lacma.org

Now Showing: Youssef Nabil’s I Saved My Belly Dancer 

LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art 

August 24, 2025 – January 11, 2026

Tajammul @ XVA Gallery, Dubai - An exhibition that capture the evolving art landscape in the Middle East

Tajammul

A Summer Show

XVA Gallery, Dubai

July 1 - September 11, 2025

XVA Gallery presents 'Tajammul', a group exhibition bringing together sixteen artists that capture the aesthetics of the evolving art landscape in the contemporary Middle East.

Exhibited Artist:

Basil Alkazzi

B. 1938. Basil Alkazzi is a Kuwait-born British visual artist, of Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti heritage. His passion for art began in early childhood, he attended the Central School of Art in London (now Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London). In 1986, he established the Basil Alkazzi Scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London; and a year later in 1987, established the Basil H. Alkazzi Award for young and emerging American painters. Through the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Alkazzi established in 2010 two biennial awards.

Hussein Al-Mohasen

B. 1971. Visual artist Hussein Al-Mohasen has been active in the art world in the Gulf region since his first appearance in 1999 at the Al-Janadriya Festival in his native Saudi Arabia, since then he has since then occupied a place alongside the pioneering Saudi artists. Behind the obvious simplicity of his works lurks a decades-long journey shaped by poetry from the Arab world and the complex intersections between modern spaces and personal freedoms. Al Mohasen’s work is visually global and overcomes regional paradigms, presenting the contemporary Arab experience after the fashion of the poetry and music that inspired him: In the end, we all speak the same language. Hussein Al Mohasen’s work has been exhibited all over the Middle East since 1999.

Charlotte de Bekker

Charlotte de Bekker is an award-winning filmmaker and artist based in the Netherlands. She spent the majority of her childhood in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, going on to study both Film and Philosophy at NYU Abu Dhabi. Charlotte uses what she has learnt from her basis of being a filmmaker in the science, education and documentary fields, and ties this in with themes of futurism, nature, and folklore.

Debjani Bhardwaj

Debjani Bhardwaj was born in Kolkata, India and completed her Masters in Business Management at Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi , India . She started her career as a financial analyst in New Delhi. She later moved into the field of art in the year 2007 and completed MA Fine Arts at the Open College of the Arts, UK. She is a multidisciplinary artist and expresses herself through sculpture (ceramics, paper), illustration, papercuts and printmaking. She has illustrated two children’ s books “World Tales “, a book of folk tales written by the students of Dubai International Academy (2009 ) and “A Magic Place” , a book of short stories used by middle school children in India (2010).

CC (Alireza Asbahi)

Born in 1969 in Tehran, CC’s artistic journey is a fascinating blend of personal experiences and cultural influences. At a young age, CC had to take the responsibility of being the head of his family, which shaped his outlook on life and his creative pursuits. It was during his time working at a clothing manufacturing company that he discovered his passion for art. Drawing inspiration from his father, who was a tailor, CC began experimenting with collaging and layering techniques, using an old sewing machine as his tool to craft intricate pieces. CC’s art is a reflection of his deep connection to Iranian history and culture, with a particular focus on exploring the aesthetics and symbolism of traditional iconography, such as the Lion and the Sun. His works exude a raw and powerful energy, blending patterns and colors in a way that is both understated and impactful. With a distinct and recognizable style, CC has established himself in the art world. His ability to breathe new life into ancient forms while preserving their timeless beauty is a testament to his skill and unwavering dedication to his craft.

Imran Channa

B. 1981. Imran Channa is a Pakistani visual artist. Channa’s primary interest is in historical documentation and how that documentation creates narratives, information and misinformation. He finds that historical narratives and the documents that create or support them are limited in scope and complexity. He uses drawing, moving image, installation and digital technology as means to re-examine historical documents and their influence, so inviting audiences to contemplate the contradictions of how we record and understand history.

Elizabeth Dorazio

The artist was born and raised in Araguari, deep in the Brazilian hinterland. Currently residing in Dubai, she works between Brazil and the UAE. Her practice draws on the visual cultures and popular techniques of both “homes”. Dorazio studied Visual Arts at the Guignard University of Art (Fundação Escola Guignard) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, later specializing in Ancient Italian Art Techniques at the Institute for Art and Restoration (Istituto per L’Arte e il Ristauro), Florence, Italy, and finally, in Germany at the Abendschule, Staedelschule. She studied art history under Rodrigo Naves, one of Brazil’s foremost art critics and scholars. Dorazio’s practice centers on mixed-media works and installations. To skim through her myriad bodies of works is to glimpse a fascination with instability, shifting surfaces, the cosmic, the organic, the cellular, and skin. While she remains faithful to a certain technical classicism (drawing, etching, the use of egg tempera), she also disrupts through material (x-ray fragments, chair caning) and scale. Upstream, her works are process-driven; on reception, they seem urgent and interactive. The artist has exercised her skills as a curator in the exhibitions Existenzielle Korrespondenzen (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo, 2016), Blue Connection (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo/Sorocaba, 2010-11) and Schweizer 9 (Frankfurt am Main, 2008).

Oussama Garti

Born in Rabat, he is a Moroccan architectural designer and artist trained at the Architectural Association in London. Fascinated by the infinite amount of similarities between macro and micro elements around him, Garti explores the idea of perception and works with an extensive research to produce his work. His environment and observations fuel his creative process. He also uses numerous tools to explore remote locations and builds a digital library of natural textures in different scales. He magnifies “moments” and celebrates their complexity on his canvas. With his immersive work, Oussama Garti takes us on a journey full of poetry and lyricism. Oussama is also the co-founder of INTERVAL, a non-profit cultural initiative that aims to widen access to art, invite different actors to debate around a range of topics, and support projects with high social impact in the MENA region.

Mahmoud Hamadani

B. 1958 Iran, lives in New York. Mahmoud Hamadani’s works have been shown at The British Museum, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, as well as numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York, London, Dubai, Lausanne, Beirut and Hong Kong. He is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The British Museum. He is a recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Hamadani earned a BA in Mathematics from State University of New York and a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

David Howarth

Associate Dean and Associate Professor in Graphic Design at the College of Arts & Creative Enterprises – Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. David earned an MA in Communication Design from the University of Salford, England. David is currently working on a Typography project connected to Land Art, inspired by the ecology of Sir Banyas Island.

Richard Ketley

B. 1964, Johannesburg, South Africa. Richard has painted since a young age and held his first solo exhibition while in school at Hyde Park High School, Johannesburg. During his early years he exhibited at Artist in the Sun, at the Sandton Gallery, Johannesburg, and also participated in an exhibition at the National Galley in Kampala, Uganda. Today Richard works principally in charcoal, acrylic and oil, and seeks to develop images that are drawn from life but extend the viewer’s imagination.

Behdad Lahooti

B.1976. Behdad Lahooti is an Iranian sculptor and an active member of the association of Iranian sculptors. He has years of experiences as director and general secretary of Tehran Sculpture Biennial, national Sculpture Expositions, and other sculpture-related events under his belt while cooperating with various Iranian art galleries, such as Aaran Art gallery and Hedayat Art Gallery as an artist and has had several solo and group exhibitions so far. He has experienced with a wide variety of materials over his long years of activity as a sculptor. Although his skill in working with varying kinds of metals has been particularly appreciated, he frequently uses wood, plaster, resin, ceramic, fabric, and many others in his creative process. New materials and techniques are always welcomed in Lahooti’s pieces and his art is characterized by implementing modern techs and processes. Distinctive and varied periods can be seen in the works of this prolific artist, distinguishable for one another in terms of forms and manners of dealing with subject matters. Nonetheless, social issues remain the key theme in his works and events in the world and Middle-East, wars, and news exert a big impact on him. Lahooti’s work has been well received by art enthusiasts dues their aesthetic qualities, both formal and visual, as well as their skillful construction. Although his works fascinate viewers by their sheer beauty at first sight, they provoke thought in all of them too.

Colleen Quigley

Colleen Quigley is a Japanese-American visual artist based in Tucson, Arizona. Her practice encompasses a broad range of media including sculpture, installation, painting, encaustic, and digital fabrication. Colleen Quigley’s research interests include postmodern strategies of making in relation to themes of materiality, perception, memory and place, and the transcultural flow of objects. Her work has been exhibited in Italy, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and the U.A.E.

Tor Seidel

Tor Seidel is a German artist, curator, and lecturer with extensive experience teaching art at universities, as well as in the gallery and exhibition sectors.

Moussa Tiba

B. 1939 D. 2014. Moussa Tiba studied at the Beirut Fine Arts Institute and later pursued further education in London, Rome, and other regions, exploring various artistic mediums. His style transitioned from figuration to abstraction in the 1970s, with watercolor becoming central to his work. Tiba’s art reflects a fusion of Western and Eastern influences, focusing on themes of creation, peace, and the regeneration of life. Tiba’s work has been exhibited internationally in Lebanon, France, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Kuwait, and Brazil. His pieces are held in major collections, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and UNESCO in Beirut. His family home in Qana has been converted into a museum dedicated to his art and also displays works by other prominent artists.

Morteza Zahedi

Born in 1978, Rasht, Iran and lives in Tehran. He started his artistic career at the age of 15, working as a professional graphic designer, children’s book illustrator, painter and sculptor. As of 2011, he is also an outsider art collector, curator, and gallerist.

XVA GALLERY

Al Fahidi Neighborhood, Bur Dubai, Dubai, UAE

www.xvagallery.com

Nima Nabavi @ The Third Line, Dubai - "Sunrise at the Vortex" Exhibition

Nima Nabavi: Sunrise at the Vortex 

The Third Line, Dubai 

15 June – 27 July 2025

Nima Nabavi 

Roswell2223, 2023 

Ink on Canvas, 549 x 182 x 2 cm

© Nima Nabavi, courtesy The Third Line

The Third Line presents Sunrise at the Vortex, the second solo exhibition by Nima Nabavi at the gallery. Featuring a selection of new works made by the artist between 2022 and 2025, the show marks a significant evolution in his practice, both conceptually and technically. Rooted in his travels to sites across the world considered to be energy centers by different communities, the works reflect Nabavi’s deepened commitment to introspection, geometry, and modes of making that embrace technology alongside traditional tools.

Spending quiet time in these sites, the artist forged a stronger connection to himself and the universe, which prompted a turn to his practice as a way for meditation and self-exploration. Created in concentrated, inspired bursts within makeshift studios in Roswell, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Dubai, the resulting works exude increasing complexity and intensity in both form and color.

Roswell2223 (2023), the largest handmade piece Nima Nabavi has created to date, consists of countless lines that create a brilliant, crystalline surface. Drawn painstakingly over the course of a year—often while crouching over the canvas to trace each line, assisted only by a nine-foot ruler—the piece reflects the artist’s belief in life: “If the intention to maintain a pattern is there, then over time, all these lines will form the pattern—like life, in the sense that if we maintain the intention to live with kindness, openness, and consistency, we will lead that kind of life, even if we may have some bad days on the way.” Collectively, the geometric forms of the work map out a universe that invite viewers to lose themselves in.

Simultaneously, reflections on the meaning of artmaking have inspired the artist to broaden the scope of his methodology. Nima Nabavi has experimented with various new media and technology in recent years, creating works such as Signal (2025), a site-specific Digital Façade Commission by Art Jameel, displayed at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE in April 2025.

In Sunrise at the Vortex, Nima Nabavi presents a series of works made using an architectural pen-plotter typically employed to print building blueprints. Hand-drawn digital compositions are rendered line-by-line by the machine utilizing the same tools as the artist, resulting in richly layered pieces that retain his signature intricacy while allowing for greater depth. Far from reducing his practice, technology becomes a means of enriching it, as it enables the artist to conceive and realize geometric forms that would otherwise be impossible. 

As Nima Nabavi recounts: “Growing up, I witnessed my grandfather, who was a self-taught geometric artist, no longer being able to execute his ideas – which were becoming ever-complex over the years – as his body grew weaker with age.”

This memory underscores the artist’s decision to integrate technology into his process as one not to delegate creativity, but to carve out space for introspection and experimentation, as well as to ensure its sustainability and expansion. Collectively, the works in the exhibition reflect Nabavi’s evolving relationship with his practice – one that honors both his past and the possibilities ahead.

Artist Nima Nabavi

Born in Iran in 1978, Nima Nabavi is a self-taught artist based between Dubai and New York. His practice centers on geometric abstraction and its connection to the natural world, quantum processes, and psychedelic phenomena. Drawing on an ever expanding set of tools – ranging from the traditional to the technological – Nima Nabavi creates grid-based compositions of elaborately layered, ordered forms, inspired by his grandfather, who was a master geometer for over 50 years. Nabavi’s mathematical approach and repetitive numeric symbolism rely heavily on advanced planning, precise calculations, and self-developed methodologies to ensure the vital structural accuracy of each work. This contemplative execution of intricate geometries aims to build complexity out of simple forms and reveal the emergent harmony and inherent beauty of our shared reality.

Selected solo exhibitions include Sunrise at the Vortex, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2025); Visiting, Roswell Museum, New Mexico, USA (2023); and 1,2,3, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2018). Nima Nabavi’s group exhibitions include Geometry and Art in The Modern Middle East, Misk Art Institute Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2023); Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival – ‘Gradate’, Sharjah Museum of Art, Sharjah, UAE (2022); Ways of Seeing Abstraction - Works from the Deutsche Bank Collection, Palais Populaire, Berlin, Germany (2021); There is Fiction In The Space Between, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2020); Crafting Geometry: Abstract Art from South and West Asia, Sotheby’s, New York, USA (2020); Fragments, Yesterday and Today, Gateway, Abu Dhabi Art, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2019); Your Favorite Artist's Favorite Artist #2, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, USA (2019); Horizon, Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah, UAE (2018).

Nima Nabavi’s work is part of private and public collections, including the Deutsche Bank Collection, Berlin, Germany and the Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE.

THE THIRD LINE

Alserkal Avenue, Warehouse 78, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, UAE

thethirdline.com

Aisha Alabbar Gallery @ Art Dubai 2025 with artists Faris Abdulla Alshafar, Sara Al Haddad, Sara Aref Ahli - "The Rhythm of Existence" Exhibition

Aisha Alabbar Gallery at Art Dubai 2025 

Faris Abdulla Alshafar, Sara Al Haddad, Sara Aref Ahli

The Rhythm of Existence

Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai

18 - 20 April, 2025

SARA AHLI 

Bone Marrow – Flesh, 2024 - Installation

Courtesy of Aisha Alabbar Gallery

Aisha Alabbar Gallery announces its participation in Art Dubai 2025 with The Rhythm of Existence, an exhibition featuring works by prominent Emirati artists Faris Abdulla Alshafar, Sara Al Haddad, and Sara Aref Ahli. The collection explores themes of time, memory, and transformation, inviting viewers to reflect on the metaphysical connections between past and present, self and space.

Through diverse practices in painting, fiber art, sculpture, and glass, the exhibition showcases how personal histories, cultural narratives, and emotional landscapes are translated into compelling visual languages. This presentation positions Aisha Alabbar Gallery as a vital platform for Emirati talent on the global stage.

Through its exhibitions, innovative programs, and bespoke publications, Aisha Alabbar Gallery enriches the dynamic tapestry of the arts in the UAE, leaving a lasting mark on the cultural landscape.

FARIS ABDULLA ALSHAFAR

Faris Abdulla Alshafar’s paintings embody the rhythm of music, using layered colorfields and mark-making to explore interconnectedness and the passage of time. His works delve into the balance between form and formlessness, creating visual symphonies of emotion and thought.

“Throughout the years, there’s been an anchoring pendulum of form and formlessness that dictates specificity in my works. I put together pieces from different years, mediums, and formats to evoke the volatile experience of music that informs the core of my practice. Narratives are fragile seams in my work—I invite viewers to unthread them, project their own experiences, and build inner worlds through my pieces,” said Abdulla Alshafar.

Faris Abdulla Alshafar (b. 1995, Dubai) lives and works between Dubai and New York City. Deeply influenced by the temporal nature of music, his work offers a meditative exploration of determinism, interconnectedness, and the ephemeral nature of sensory experiences.

SARA AL HADDAD

Sara Al Haddad’s fiber-based installations transform materials like yarn into vessels of emotional expression. Using techniques such as crocheting and stitching, she creates tactile forms that resonate with memory and vulnerability.

“My art allows me to process emotions with curiosity, examining situations and memories before transforming them into tangible, commemorative objects. Each piece is an opportunity to connect with the intricacies of human emotions, inviting viewers to step into these intimate spaces,” said Sara Al Haddad.

Sara Al Haddad (b. 1988, Dubai) is a Fulbright Scholar with an MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her works have been exhibited at renowned institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

SARA AREF AHLI

Sara Aref Ahli’s interdisciplinary practice spans sculpture, installation, and glass, exploring themes of body, memory, and resilience. By shaping glass, she examines the fragility and strength of human experience.

“Using glass as a metaphor, I reveal the tension between strength and vulnerability, absence and presence. My work explores the body as a vessel of memory, bringing this inquiry to Art Dubai,” shared Ahli.

Sara Aref Ahli (b. 1993, Alabama) works between Dubai and Providence, Rhode Island. Her practice examines the body and memory through materiality, using glass to create dreamlike spaces that blend the real, imagined, and forgotten.

AISHA ALABBAR GALLERY

Established in 2018, Aisha Alabbar Gallery stands as a pillar of contemporary and modern art in Dubai, UAE. Guided by a commitment to showcasing both emerging and established talents, the gallery elevates the voices and visions of artists from the UAE, the region, and beyond.

As a pioneering women-led Emirati gallery, Aisha Alabbar Gallery takes pride in being among the first in the region to celebrate the brilliance of local and regional artists. Through meticulous curation and collaborations with esteemed curators and organizations, the gallery invests significant resources to spotlight these artists on the global stage.

AISHA ALABBAR GALLERY

Warehouse C-19, Alserkal Avenue 17th Street, 

Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 - Dubai, UAE

www.aishaalabbar.art

Downtown Design Riyadh 2025 @ JAX District, Riyadh - Save the Date

Downtown Design Riyadh 2025

JAX District, Riyadh

20 - 23 May 2025

DOWNTOWN DESIGN RIYADH: 20-23 MAY, 2025

The leading fair for contemporary and quality design in the Middle East, Downtown Design, will open its inaugural fair in Saudi Arabia. Located in the JAX District, Riyadh, with the stunning backdrop of the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al Turaif, Downtown Design Riyadh will take place from 20-23 May 2025.

Held in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Architecture and Design Commission of the Ministry of Culture, the fair will offer design professionals and industry leaders as well as design enthusiasts and the culturally curious with direct access to contemporary and limited-edition design from around the world, with a spotlight on local talent. 

داون تاون ديزاين الرياض :20 إلى 23 مايو، 2025 

سيشهد "داون تاون ديزاين"، المعرض البارز في مجال التصميم المعاصر والجودة في الشرق الأوسط، انطلاق نسخته الأولى في المملكة العربية السعودية. وسيُقام "داون تاون ديزاين الرياض" في حي جاكس بالرياض، الذي يتميز بإطلالته الخلابة على حي الطريف التاريخي المُدرج ضمن قائمة التراث العالمي لليونسكو، وذلك من 20 إلى 23 مايو 2025.

سيوفر المعرض، الذي يُنظم بالتعاون مع هيئة فنون العمارة والتصميم التابعة لوزارة الثقافة السعودية، فرصة فريدة للمحترفين وقادة القطاع وعشاق التصميم والمهتمين بالثقافة للوصول المباشر إلى التصاميم المعاصرة والإصدارات المحدودة من مختلف أنحاء العالم، مع تسليط الضوء على المواهب المحلية.

DOWNTOWN DESIGN RIYADH

www.downtowndesign.com

Artist Shama Al Hamed @ Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai - "I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing?" Exhibition Curated by Walter Willems

Shama Al Hamed

I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing?

Curated by Walter Willems

Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai

4 February - 5 April 2025

Aisha Alabbar Gallery presents I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing?, the first solo exhibition by SHAMA AL HAMED, curated by WALTER WILLEMS. This collection of paintings, sculptures, and installations offers a deeply personal exploration of the artist’s journey, providing insight into the formative experiences and emotions that have shaped her creative practice and artistic perspective.

In I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing?, Shama Al Hamed uses the metaphor of jumping as a symbol of movement— through time, memory, and emotion. Each leap becomes a reflection of her ongoing efforts to navigate and transcend the spaces that define her, whether driven by joy, individuality, or quiet defiance. 

A recurring theme in her work is the integration of architectural patterns, derived from photographs of buildings that framed her childhood. These designs, transformed through repetition and abstraction, evoke defining memories and the influence of physical spaces on her creative vision.

“This body of work is a visual narrative of resilience and transformation,” said Shama Al Hamed. “Each piece represents a leap, a moment of searching, and an embrace of the uncertainty that fuels my growth.”

I Jump – Will I Stick the Landing? invites viewers to journey through Shama Al Hamed’s reflections, navigating memories, thoughts, and dreams. This immersive exhibition is an opportunity to engage with the textures, forms, and patterns that define her work and to consider the leaps we take in our own lives.

This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, offering new insights into the works on display and the broader context in which they exist.

SHAMA AL HAMED (b. Abu Dhabi, 1999) is a visual artist who earned her Bachelor of Visual Art degree from the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2022. Her practice centers on capturing moments from her life through paintings and installations. All her work represents self-portraits in a conceptual manner, illustrating the continuous evolution of her mind, including her subconscious. This subconscious reveals different stories and conflicts within her work. She frequently explores self-portraits with a narrative that blends observation with the dreamlike nature of the subconscious. Using painting as her primary medium, she transforms patterns into art, infusing each piece with a unique storyline.

WALTER WILLEMS is a Dutch artist, curator, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the arts and culture industry. He has curated major exhibitions, managed large-scale interactive public art, and co-founded ArtBarrage, a consultancy specializing in digital contemporary art sales and artist career development. Walter Willems has collaborated with institutions like the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Culture, where he co-curated the 2023 Sikka Art & Design Festival. As an artist, his work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public and private collections across Europe, North America, Australia, and the UAE.

AISHA ALABBAR GALLERY

Warehouse C-19, Alserkal Avenue 17th Street, 

Al Quoz Industrial Area 1 - Dubai, UAE

www.aishaalabbar.art

Armin Najib @ Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai - "-continuum" Exhibition

Armin Najib: -continuum

Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai

18 September - 9 November 2024

Aisha Alabbar Gallery presents -continuum, a compelling art exhibition by ARMIN NAJIB (b. Tehran, 1989) that delves into the ongoing evolution of human existence. This collection traces the transformative journey from the fluidity of circles to the rigidity of squares, symbolizing the various stages of life’s profound changes. It reflects humanity’s pursuit of perfection and salvation while embracing the inherent beauty of imperfection.

This exhibition invites visitors to immerse themselves in the human experience, to lean in, learn, and ultimately lead through a deeper understanding of life’s complexities. The collection presents the human journey as a series of ongoing projects—creations, connections, and collaborations that continuously evolve. It serves as a poignant reminder that we are living installations, constantly in progress, shaped and reshaped over time.

“This exhibition marks a new chapter for Aisha Alabbar Gallery, bringing together a remarkable series of works that chart an evolutionary journey,” said Shilan Samaei, Gallery Director. “We are thrilled to open our doors with this exhibition by Armin Najib, where each piece beautifully reveals how shadows of the past merge seamlessly with reflections of the future, offering viewers a profound exploration of transformation and growth.”

Among the highlights of the exhibition is the Me, I and Existence collection. “This selection serves as the DNA of my work,” said Armin Najib. “Like a script for directing a movie, these pieces form a visual narrative of humanity’s shift from a life once content on a round earth to a present where meaning is sought within self-made cubes. This evolutionary journey is captured and celebrated in each piece, showcasing how we cocoon ourselves in layers of history.’’

Armin Najib's -continuum is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, offering new insights into the works on display and the broader context in which they exist.

AISHA  ALABBAR GALLERY

Warehouse 19C, Alserkal Avenue 17th St, Al Quoz, Dubai

www.aishaalabbar.art

Faisal Samra Exhibition @ Ayyam Gallery, Dubai - "Immortal Moment II - Coping with the Shock"

Faisal Samra

Immortal Moment II - Coping with the Shock

Ayyam Gallery, Dubai

27 February - 15 April 2024

FAISAL SAMRA

PSF-P2, 2023 

Charcoal, Ink & Oil on Canvas, 50.5 x 50.5 cm

© Faisal Samra, Courtesy Ayyam Gallery

Ayyam Gallery presents Immortal Moment II - Coping with the Shock, a solo exhibition featuring Faisal Samra’s recent body of work.

This exhibition showcases the second body of work from the Immortal Moment project, in which Faisal Samra creates artworks through the accumulation of instances, pushing the viewer to question the opportunities of a single moment. In the first chapter of this project, Faisal describes the technique as capturing a moment and immortalizing it in time through gestural performances, serving as an expression of emotions. However, now, he defines the outcome as a “shock”. This exhibition reveals the process of Coping with the Shock. 

While the concept of fight or flight is thoroughly examined in the fields of medicine and psychology, Faisal Samra introduces a novel conceptualisation of it through his artistic practice. At a moment of shock, either the moment dominates and controls us, or we absorb and adapt to it, metamorphosing into a new form. To survive and overcome the shock is what we call coping.

In the spirit of fight, the artist intervenes post gesture to cope with what chance and the laws of physics produce. The study of the improvised creation allows the artist to seek meaning within the abstraction. Therefore creating postshock creatures and figures. In a meditative process, the summation of dots and splashes of color amount to what the artist is looking for. Ultimately, this artistic endeavor becomes an endless cycle of documentation, acts, and gestures that trace time and immortalize it, one overcoming the other.

The cyclic timeline in capturing the essence of moments is evident in his concepts and the evolution of his artistic practice. In the Distorted Reality series (2005/2011), Faisal chose a moment from countless stills of filmed performances. In the subsequent project, Thriving Emotions - Immortal Moment the artist identifies the moment before anything else. The emphasis lay on the emotion conveyed through the spontaneous act of creating marks. The Immortal Moment project comes to a full circle in this exhibition: through gestural mark-making, Faisal Samra restructures the singular moment of action to birth a new series of moments to establish control amidst the unpredictable.

The dialogue between the abstract and figurative, conceptually or formalistically, is essential to Faisal Samra’s work. Time, being one of the most abstract ideas becomes figurative when Faisal visually notes down specific points in time through the use of charcoal and paint. The result is formalistically abstract, but the final creation becomes figurative through several interventions, which represent a culmination of temporal instances. 

FAISAL SAMRA - BIOGRAPHY

Long considered one of the Arab Gulf’s foremost artists and a pioneer of conceptual art in the Middle East, Bahrainiborn, Saudi national Faisal Samra incorporates digital photography, painting, sculpture, video, and performance in a creative repertoire that explores existentialist themes with the figure at its center. Since the mid-1970s, Faisal Samra has tested the conventional functions of media through meticulously structured works with experimentation and research as the guiding principles of his artistic practice. As his oeuvre has progressed and defied traditional modes of representation, he has rebelled against his own understanding of art, transitioning into new works that maintain three essential concepts: spontaneity, dynamism, and secrecy.

In 1974, Faisal Samra emigrated from Saudi Arabia to France to attend the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA), Paris. While studying at the esteemed institution, he immersed himself in the work of modern and contemporary European artists. This initial period of Faisal Samra’s development was distinguished by expressionist drawings and paintings that investigate the body in motion or at rest, establishing a conceptual basis for later videos, photographs, and installations, while also demonstrating his initial rejection of the prescribed forms of figuration. Upon graduating from the ENSBA in 1980, Faisal Samra settled in Saudi Arabia and continued to exhibit abroad. In the late 1980s, he returned to France, where he spent four years as an art consultant at the Institut du Monde Arabe. After nearly a decade of contributing to collective exhibitions across Europe, he held his first solo show at Etienne Dinet Gallery in Paris (1989). This milestone was followed by Le Pli (1991), a critically acclaimed exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe that established Faisal Samra as a leading artist from the Arab world. This period of his career was distinguished by early investigations of emotive and sensory approaches to art.

In the 1990s, Faisal Samra’s Heads and Other Body series introduced hanging art objects that blur the lines between painting and sculpture by liberating the treated canvas from the stretcher or frame and incorporating materials such as wire mesh, which create an armature for three-dimensional forms. This enabled Faisal Samra to explore the dynamics of an artwork as it is experienced in a particular setting while presenting constructive materials as its form and content. These formal and conceptual breakthroughs led to influential installation, video, and multimedia works that continued his career-long investigation of life, the space between birth and death, and how time can be reflected through the visual devices of art.

The artist’s selected solo exhibitions include the Ministry of Culture in Bahrain (2016); Bin Matter House, Bahrain (2015); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2014); Ayyam Gallery London (2014); Ayyam Gallery Jeddah (2013); HD Galerie, Casablanca (2012); Traffic Gallery, Dubai (2011); Albareh Gallery, Bahrain (2010); Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2009); XVA Gallery, Dubai (2007).

Recently, Faisal Samra has participated in collective exhibitions at the Bienalsur, Argentina (2019); OFF Biennale Cairo (2018, 2015); Musée Labinet, France (2017); Low Gallery, San Diego, USA (2016); Abu Dhabi Festival, UAE (2015); Busan Museum, South Korea; FotoFest, Houston (2014), Edge of Arabia, London (2012); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); Maraya Art Center, Sharjah (2010).

Faisal Samra’s works are housed in the collections of The British Museum, London; BuchDruckKunst e.V Art Book Museum, Hamburg; the National Museum, Mexico City; the Modern Art Museum, Cairo; Almansouria Foundation, Jeddah; Jameel Art Foundation, Jeddah; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; and Bahrain National Museum, Manama, among others. He has participated in biennials in Singapore and Cairo (2008) and is a jury member for the Alexandria Biennale, Egypt.

In 2012, Skira Editore published an eponymous monograph on the artist.

AYYAM GALLERY

B11, Alserkal Avenue, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai

www.ayyamgallery.com

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar - Text + Photographs

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Exterior

Architect: Jean-François Bodin

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Exterior

Architect: Jean-François Bodin

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Exterior

Architect: Jean-François Bodin

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

The Museum offers a welcoming, vibrant environment that invites evolving discussions about modern art in the region and beyond. Home to a permanent collection that offers a distinctively unique comprehensive overview of modern and contemporary art from North Africa and the Middle East, Mathaf ("museum" in Arabic) also performs a vital role as a centre for dialogue and scholarship and a resource for fostering creativity. 

Mathaf was opened in 2010 by Qatar Museums in partnership with Qatar Foundation (QF) and is located in Education City. It is located in a former school building in Qatar Foundation’s Education City, which was transformed by French architect Jean-François Bodin. The Museum was founded by H.E. Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani, who began collecting in the 1980s with the acquisition of works by Qatari artists. 

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Interior

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Interior

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Interior

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Buidlding Interior

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Sheikh Hassan later broadened his focus to include works by 20th-century artists throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Arab Diaspora and objects that inspired many Arab modern artists, such as pre-Islamic works from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. An initial group of works assembled by Sheikh Hassan was donated to the public institution. 

Over the past decade, Mathaf has hugely contributed to research and debate around modern art contemporary art, made available to scholars and audiences through the Mathaf Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World. The Museum made itself a meeting point for scholars from across the region around education programmes, conferences, and publications. It has served as a dynamic platform for artists by facilitating the creation and exploration of contemporary works.

Mathaf presents a world-class temporary exhibition programme each year, featuring internationally acclaimed modern and contemporary artists whose work plays an important role in opening conversations on the social and political shifts in the history and contemporary life of the Arab world, investigating the way societies are structured, and interrogating the role art plays in our local and regional contexts. Since opening in 2010, the museum has held solo exhibitions of artists including Adel Abdessemed, Etel Adnan, El Anatsui, Dia Al-Azzawi, Yto Barrada, Cai Guo-Qiang, Huguette Caland, Mona Hatoum, M F Husain, Fateh al-Moudarres, Shirin Neshat, Raqs Media Collective, and Wael Shawky. 

Abdellah Karroum

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Abdellah Karroum was the director of Mathaf from june 2013 through 2021.

Zeina Arida

Photo Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Zeina Arida is the director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. An expert in the arts, culture and heritage of the Arab world with a focus on photography, archives and modern and contemporary art, Zeina Arida reopened the Sursock Museum in Beirut after a ten-year renovation and expansion project, initiating local and international partnerships, presenting exhibitions, public programmes, and library and archives programmes, turning the museum into a local and international landmark. After the museum was damaged by the Beirut blast in 2020, she raised more than $2.5 million for the reconstruction of the building and the restoration of the artworks. From 1997 to 2014, Zeina Arida was the director of the Arab Image Foundation (AIF), where she co-initiated Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI), a strategic multi-year programme designed to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the region’s photographic heritage. 

MATHAF: ARAB MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

Education City, Doha, Qatar

qm.org.qa

Tammam Azzam @ Ayyam Gallery, Dubai - يوميات - Diary Exhibition

Tammam Azzam

يوميات - Diary

Ayyam Gallery, Dubai

8 January - 20 February 2024

TAMMAM AZZAM

Railway, 2023 

Paper Collage on Canvas, 90 x 130 cm

© Tamman Azzam / Courtesy of Ayyam Gallery

Ayyam Gallery presents Diary, a solo exhibition featuring TAMMAM AZZAM’s recent body of work.

In the exhibition Diary, Tammam Azzam, an artist known for his profound explorations of the destruction and reconstruction of an image or space, showcases works that play with perspective. Horizon lines expand outward and urban vistas are cut into parts, interrupted like the lines of a window frame. In one untitled 2021 painting, the sky is a turquoise sea-blue, which complicates the boundaries of the subject, an earthy terrain referencing the lava fields in the south of Syria, where Azzam is from. The sea-sky’s color marks a tonality he has carried with him, visible in paintings of scenes from parts of Berlin, thus connecting different places in visual moments.

In four 2022 studies on paper, Azzam zooms in on a particular building in a Berlin neighborhood, mapping its rise with a rectangular grid of windows. At times the rectangles are left blank like empty plots and while in other cases they are filled in and fused. Through the use of color, the architecture — enveloped by a conventional sky or muddy green and red — becomes a subjective reality. 

2018 marked a significant turning point for Azzam, where he delved into paper collages. The papers he uses, varying from 30 to 110 grams, are layered, glued and constituted in detail through a meticulous use of color. His resulting broken-up façades move beyond the collapsed cityscapes evident in other signature works such as the largely monochrome 2014 series Storeys. Where much of Azzam’s previous work has been seen to index the war-torn country he left behind in 2016, his visual narratives construct an arc broader than displacement and memory. Pieced together in collages on canvas like intricate yet imperfect puzzles, the artist evokes a vision about to be formed. The painted paper collages are symbolic of the delicate balance between fragility and creation, between a weathered façade and fluid abstractions of nature. In Neukladow for example, a certain opacity in technique is tempered with washes and reflections of water.

In his depictions of empty roads that go beyond our field of vision, he creates a topography like veins of marble, disappearing in the distance. Each fragment in his work (of color, material, form) is a piece of time, a rhythm. And the entire picture is more than the sum of its parts. Take the 2023 collage of copper-toned tectonic plates which could equally be the earth’s crust or an icy lake shimmering in the sun. Just above the painting’s center the ground become a vertical, cracked wall. This kind of shift in vantage point impacts the work’s sense of dimension and texture as well as the ways in which the eye travels and rests — how we understand the world and time.

As Azzam bears witness to his surroundings, adopting a point of view that is never top-down but consistently frontal, he emphasizes a minute scale within more-than-human worlds. Empty of living beings and yet eerily familiar, these are instances of stillness and presence — situated after an event has already happened, or before an imminent occurrence.

Text by Nadine Khalil

TAMMAM AZZAM - BIOGRAPHY

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1980, Tammam Azzam received his artistic training from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus with a concentration in oil painting. Alongside a successful career as a painter in Syria, Azzam was a prolific graphic designer, an experience that would inform his digital media work after relocating to Dubai with the start of the country’s conflict.

The initial phase of Tammam Azzam’s work was distinguished by a ‘hybrid form’ of painting with applications of various media that allowed him to arrive at tactile interactions between surface and form that multiply as compositions evolve. These semi-abstract works use unconventional materials such as rope, clothespins, and other found objects in order to accentuate the depth, texture, and space of laboured picture planes, creating a visible tension. Although outwardly different in appearance, the series that resulted from these early experiments were inspired by the artist’s changing perceptions of specific urban environments.

Following the start of the uprising in Syria, Tammam Azzam turned to digital media and graphic art to create visual composites of the conflict that resonated with international viewers. These widely distributed works are informed by his interest in the interventionist potential of digital photography and street art as powerful and direct forms of protest that are difficult to suppress. In early 2013, Tammam Azzam made worldwide headlines when his Freedom Graffiti print went viral on social media.

Recently, he has returned to painting with Storeys, a series of monumental works on canvas that communicate the magnitude of devastation experienced across his native country through expressionist compositions of destroyed cityscapes. Chronicling the current state of his homeland, Tammam Azzam delves into a cathartic exercise of reconstruction, storey by storey. Alongside these new paintings, he has produced a significant body of giclée prints and installations that depict the facets of cities through similar themes.

Tammam Azzam has contributed to large-scale international exhibitions such as the FUU-Street Art Festival, Sarajevo (2015); Vancouver Biennale, where he was in residence (2014); FotoFest Biennial, Houston (2014); Dak’Art: Biennial of Contemporary African Art, Dakar (2014); Alexandria Biennale (2014); and the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana (2013).

In recent years, Tamman Azzam has participated in solo and group exhibitions at such venues as Kornfeld Gallery, Berlin, German (2022), Museen in Sudtirol in Tirol, Italy (2020); Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA (2019); Ayyam Gallery - 11 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (2019, 2016); Kornfeld Galerie, Berlin, Germany (2018); Bienal del Sur, Caracas (2017); Künstlerforum Bonn, Bonn (2017); For-Site Foundation, San Francisco (2017, 2016); European Capital of Culture-Pafos, Pafos (2017); City Museum of Odenburg, Oldenburg (2017); Künstlerverein Walkmühle, Wiesbaden (2016); Columbia University, New York (2016); Tainiothiki Twixtlab, Athens (2016); Banksy’s Dismaland, Weston-super-Mare (2015); Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice (2015); Framer Framed in de Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam (2015); Forum Factory, Berlin (2014); Lena & Roselli Gallery, Budapest (2014); Liquid Art House, Boston (2014); Rush Arts, New York (2014); Busan Museum of Art, Seoul (2014); 1x1 Art Gallery, New Delhi (2014).

In 2016, Tammam Azzam received an artist fellowship at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study in Delmonhost.

AYYAM GALLERY

B11, Alserkal Avenue, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai

www.ayyamgallery.com

Nujoom Alghanem @ Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai - Unframed - Words by Myrna Ayad + Biography

Nujoom Alghanem: Unframed

Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Dubai

22 February – 28 April 2023

NUJOOM ALGHANEM 

Between Two Shores, 2022 

Acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 145.5 cm x 240 cm 

Courtesy of the artist and Aisha Alabbar Gallery

Aisha Alabbar Gallery presents Unframed, a solo exhibition by NUJOOM ALGHANEM (b. 1962, Dubai). Bringing together for the first time historical and new paintings as well as a new series of photographic film stills, the exhibition identifies key moments from Nujoom Alghanem ’s two-decade-plus career as an artist, poet, and filmmaker, looking beyond the metaphoric film reel and focusing one frame at a time.

There is something sinister about Between Two Shores, Nujoom Alghanem’s large acrylic and charcoal painting. Is it the ghostly eight white figures that hover over the orange water? Is it the cityscape – undeniably Deira – rendered in flaming red? Or is it Alghanem’s compositional intention to convey the impossibility of the figures reaching shore? It could be all these possibilities, and it is a lot more. All Alghanem’s creative productions are in fact visual essays, and Between Two Shores is one such example; one that first manifested as something that pierced her heart, then struck her hand that felt compelled to write poetry and then became a graphic manifestation as a painting. Across all that Alghanem creates – paintings, poems, and films – a core aspect shared by the three art forms is the sense of healing that they lend their maker.

One of the show’s crown jewels is the collection of paintings from the mid 1990s. Distinct in their small size, earthy colour scheme and compositional intrigue – abstract and figurative all at once – many of these oil paintings were made during Alghanem’s time in the USA, from where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Video Production from Ohio University in 1996. During her undergraduate years, she took a variety of electives and developed deep fascinations with history, African masks, mysticism, mythology and “the anthropological aspect of things”. It reflected in her work. She experimented with materials, such as burlap, to give her paintings texture and in her oil paintings, the “undefined creatures, both human and non-human but not animals” told of other worlds. “These kinds of obsessions don’t go,” says Alghanem. “They come back.” They did, in paintings from the early 2000s, also on show in Unframed.

For the first time, Alghanem presents photographs – stills from her films – with select handwritten verses of her own poetry. There’s the legendary conceptual Emirati artist Hassan Sharif from Sharp Tools (2017), the 90-year-old female healer from Sharjah in Hamama (2010), Fatima, the female camel breeder in Nearby Sky (2014) and of course Falak from Passage (2019), who tells us never to settle for what we know, and a host of other admirable subjects. In marrying the written word with a still from the moving image, Alghanem posits: do we read the text and understand the image, or do we see the image and understand the text? Does it even matter? Isn’t film poetry? Isn’t poetry words? And don’t words ultimately make a visual essay? The answers are in one’s secrets. 

- Words by Myrna Ayad

Myrna Ayad is recognised as one of the Arab world’s leading cultural commentators. She established her namesake consultancy in 2018, focusing on art advisory, cultural strategy and publishing. She was the Director of the region’s foremost international art fair, Art Dubai, from 2016-2018. Additionally, she was the editor of Canvas, the premier magazine for visual arts from the MENA region, from 2007 – 2015. Myrna Ayad is the author of Assouline’s Sheikh Zayed: An Eternal Legacy (2021), a seminal book on the late ruler of the Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan; as well as Dubai Wonder (2021), part of the House’s iconic travel series. She is also the author of The National’s monthly series, Remembering the Artist, an intimate portrayal of the lives of pioneering modernists from the region based on exclusive interviews with their relatives, friends or students. Myrna wrote about art from the region for titles including The New York Times, CNN Online, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Artsy, Artnet, Wallpaper* and The National, among others, as well as for artist monographs and exhibition catalogues. Over the years, she has served as a panellist and moderator and sits on the committees of cultural organisations in the region. Based in the UAE for four decades, Myrna Ayad graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2001 from the American University in Dubai. 

NUJOOM ALGHANEM - SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Nujoom Alghanem (b. 1962, Dubai) is a pioneering Emirati artist, poet, and multi-award-winning film director. Her multifaceted career which spans four decades, explores forms of storytelling. A core aspect shared by the three art forms is a sense of healing that they lend to their maker.

Nujoom Alghanem is a longstanding member of the UAE’s creative scene from its very beginnings. During the 1980s, she cofounded Aqwas Collective with the late legendary artist Hassan Sharif, Youssef Khalil and Khalid Albudoor in an attempt to look beyond traditional art by experimenting with free-verse poetry composition, constructionism, and post-modernism – inviting a certain amount of criticism. The group orchestrated pop up exhibitions in public spaces, like Central Market of Sharjah (1985) in addition to producing Silsilat Al Ramad (Chain of Ashes), a non-conventional poetry, art, and short stories publication.

In 2019, Nujoom Alghanem made history becoming the first woman to stage a solo exhibition at the UAE’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale, showing Passage, a site-specific film installation. The installation was recreated in 2021 for a solo presentation at Abu Dhabi Art and again in 2022 as part of Portrait of Nation II: Beyond Narratives. Other solo exhibitions include An Imaginary Portrait of Palestine, Tashkeel – Al Fahidi, Dubai, UAE (2022) and Malamih – Faces, Phantoms, and Expressions, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE (2021).

Nujoom Alghanem recently presented That Sea, an immersive video installation at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, ADNEC, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2023). Additionally, she participated in Khaleej Modern: Pioneers and Collectives in the Arabian Peninsula, NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2022); Union of Cultures, Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Foundation, Dubai, UAE (2022); Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2022); Ramadan Arcade, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2021); Tashweesh: Noise of Materials, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE (2018); Untold Stories Retold, Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2018); The Room of Mysteries, 21st Sharjah Islamic Art Festival, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE (2018); Mind the Gap, Tashkeel, Dubai, UAE (2017); Rock, Paper Scissors: Positions in Play, UAE National Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy (2017); MinD/Body, DUCTAC, Dubai, UAE (2013); and 4th Emirates Fine Arts Society Annual Exhibition, Expo Center, Sharjah, UAE (1985).

Nujoom Alghanem has published eight poetry collections and produced around twenty films including short fiction, documentaries, and art films, earning regional and international awards and Aisha Alabbar Gallery recognition. Nujoom Alghanem has a BA in Video Production from Ohio University in 1996 and an MA in Media Production from Griffith University in Australia in 1999.

AISHA  ALABBAR GALLERY

S1 Mag Warehouse 101, Al Quoz 2, Dubai

www.aishaalabbar.art