Ayyam Gallery presents works by Samia Halaby, Safwan Dahoul, Nadim Karam, Sama Alshaibi and Athier on display at Art Dubai 2014. The carefully selected paintings, sculptures, photo and video works comment on themes highly relevant to Middle Eastern identity discourse and to the Middle East itself. Representing a range of countries from the region, the art works to be featured at the fair will give visitors insight into central debates within the Middle East as well as its diaspora.

Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s works are often inspired by natural scenery. Containing ‘the rhythm of soft things in nature’, often different ‘adjacent events’ take place in the same pictorial space of the canvases. Halaby’s ever-colourful palette is on display with the works to be shown at the fair. Pink Cloud incorporates sparks of bright yellow and pink, while Purple Landscape is warmer, and makes use of purple and brown tones.

Known for his monochromatic and highly evocative canvases, esteemed Syrian painter Safwan Dahoul’s recent works comment on the turbulent state of events in the artist’s native country. At Art Dubai, the artist’s work serves as a meditation on repetition and time while employing the iconic female figure we have come to associate with Dahoul’s masterful canvases.

Lebanese artist Nadim Karam’s multi-disciplinary work has intervened in public spaces by bringing a new vitality to every day surroundings. At Art Dubai the artist presents an installation consisting of three small steel cabinets which house his archetypal whimsical and playful figures in varied configurations.

Iraqi-Palestinian artist Sama Alshaibi presents work from the very moving Silsila series. The artist went on a four-year cyclic journey through significant deserts and endangered water sources of the Middle East and North African region, and across to the bountiful waters of the Maldives. By linking the deserts and waters of the historical Islamic world with the nomadic traditions of the region, and the travel journals of the great 14th century Eastern explorer, Ibn Battuta, Alshaibi attempts to unearth a story of continuity within the context of an environmentally threatened future.

British-Iraqi artist Athier’s experience of watching warfare in the Middle East from a position of exile in the West comes to surface in his highly expressionistic canvases. For Art Dubai, Athier is back with a dense painterly composition that combines animal motifs from folklore with hands, eyes, teeth and pockets of blood cells.

The stunning mix of organic and non-organic elements in the work imbue the canvas with a kinetic energy which is then passed on to the viewer.

-Ayyam Gallery

Image: © Sama Alshaibi
Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery