Zawyeh Gallery hosts Refined Compositions, a solo exhibition by Palestinian artist Ruba Salameh, on view from 13 September to 9 November 2025 at its Alserkal Avenue space in Dubai.
Created at a time when violence and displacement unfold in real time, the exhibition asks how art can persist in the face of genocide. Salameh turns to abstraction as a means of carrying memory, mourning, and resilience. Her works remain in dialogue with the late Palestinian painter and art historian Kamal Boullata, particularly his seminal Homage to the Flag (1995). Through this resonance, her practice connects to a broader lineage of Palestinian artists for whom the flag and its colours have served as both a symbol of hope and a target of censorship.
The familiar colours of the Palestinian flag appear in reduced, reimagined palettes. Salameh’s method is slow and layered: canvases are often left aside for months or years, only to be reworked, concealed, and resurfaced. This cycle mirrors the fragile yet enduring nature of memory itself.
A subtle but persistent presence in her work is the ant. Emerging along borders and surfaces, the ants embody labour, farming traditions, and deep ties to the land. Their organic paths recall both the endurance of ecosystems and the quiet resilience of Palestinian workers and farmers.
Through memory, lineage, and abstraction, Refined Compositions meditates on what endures where grief, resistance, and hope remain interwoven across generations.
Location: Zawyeh Gallery, Dubai, UAE.
Date: 13 September until 9 November 2025.
About Ruba Salameh
Ruba Salameh is a Palestinian artist based in Berlin, working across painting, video, photography, and collage. She holds B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Her practice explores memory, fragmentation, and the impact of colonialism on collective identities. In recent years, she has focused on abstract painting, using repetition, layering, and erasure to create textured compositions that carry both personal and historical resonance. Referencing Bauhaus, Constructivism, and De Stijl, Salameh weaves lived experience into geometric forms. Her work has been exhibited internationally in London, Berlin, Dubai, Switzerland, and beyond.