Ayyam Gallery DIFC is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Palestinian artist, Oussama Diab. ‘In the Name of Freedom’ will feature a selection of his latest paintings. Oussama Diab’s exciting Pop and graffiti-inspired expressionistic canvases employ symbolist interpretations of current events and concerns. Candor, yet playful, this juxtaposition reflects a duality prominent in all of Diab’s work.

All featured on nondescript patterned backdrops, the subjects take center stage. Diab’s paintings incorporating balloon-headed figures and darts playfully depict fate, violence, and the ease some have in taking life.

New Pieta reconfigures Michaelangelo's Pieta sculpture. While beautifully and accurately depicting Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, Diab has added a new level of interpretation and propagandized the work with the placement of a keffiyeh around the head of Christ.

In the triptych Contrast, a fully clothed woman has her head covered with a scarf and is blindfolded while on either side of her, as if enjoying spa treatments, two women have their eyelids covered by cucumber and kiwi slices and their hair covered with towels. Humor enters the work with the carefree idea of a spa and fruit, yet it is the simple difference of circumstance that defines whether these women are engaged in a free act or constrained by it and the reference is that all three women are imposing blindness upon themselves.

Perhaps the most challenging message is carried by Diab’s Human Being. Depicting a banana pierced throughout with nails on a light-hearted floral background, Human Being, denotes the crucifixion, pain, and temporal issues, leading the viewer to ultimately question his own mortality.