Alia Ahmad ‘Aspects’ at Lawrie Shabibi Gallery

Lawrie Shabibi presents the first solo exhibition in the UAE by Saudi Arabian artist Alia Ahmad, titled ‘Aspects,’ featuring a new collection of paintings and watercolours.

In ‘Aspects,’ Ahmad delves into her visual language, inspired by the rapidly transforming landscape of her home city, Riyadh. Here, traditional life coexists with rapid industrialisation, modernity, and flourishing native plant life. This dynamic environment offers rich material for her artistic exploration. Ahmad’s segmented compositions, with their tonal contrasts, flowing brushwork, and layered forms, evoke a sense of ongoing growth and transformation.

Her intimately scaled works break down elements from her surroundings into abstracted floral, geometric, and vegetal shapes. Some evoke stones, webs, or microstructures, creating a unique vocabulary of forms. In certain square-format paintings, a single motif is featured, reminiscent of embroidered textiles or murals, suggesting a fragment of infinite geometry that could extend beyond the canvas into limitless space.

Interview with Alia Ahmad

1.⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠How has the rapidly changing environment of Riyadh impacted your work and how do you see your work evolving within this environment?

The Saudi landscape, often characterised by vast expanses of arid desert, holds a distinct fascination for me. While its dryness might initially suggest emptiness, I’ve found that it reveals a profound and intricate beauty upon closer observation. However, Saudi Arabia is not just a land of deserts. The country’s landscape is surprisingly diverse, featuring rich agricultural areas, lush oases, and regions where crops thrive. From date palms in Al-Ahsa to the green terraces of Asir, agriculture plays an essential role in shaping the country’s identity. This contrast between the desert’s starkness and the fertile agricultural regions adds depth to my artistic exploration.

In my paintings, I express my own interpretation of the landscape, blending elements that reference wind-sculpted dunes, desert skies, rocky outcrops, and the cultivated lands that thrive in various parts of the country. Using colour palettes not typically found in nature, I aim to reflect how I see both the natural and human-altered environments around me.

Industrial buildings and urban development have also found their way into my work. The juxtaposition of these man-made structures with the untouched desert has always been reflected in the work. The geometric lines of factories, warehouses, and construction sites introduce a new narrative to the landscape—one where tradition and modernity coexist and collide. This industrial influence is part of the evolving Saudi environment and represents the country’s rapid development. I explore this contrast by incorporating these shapes and textures, blending them into the organic forms of nature to reflect the complexity of the environment today.

Now that I have a new studio in Riyadh, I appreciate the easy access to immediate references, rather than relying on distant sources of inspiration. Even when I work abroad, I always return to this foundational approach, which emphasises the importance of staying connected to the local context in my creative process.

2.⁠ ⁠Can you talk about your process of deconstructing the native plants and geometric motifs into abstract shapes?

In the show Aspects, I wanted to introduce a fragmented study of various motifs, blending elements from traditional designs and natural forms. Many of the works bring together different motifs and colour schemes. The geometric and linear structures from traditional weaving, native plants or traditional motifs and geometric signs are reimagined as abstract shapes.  Through this process, Aspects highlights how these motifs can be reinterpreted and layered to create something both familiar and independent.

3.⁠ ⁠⁠The concept of “infinite geometry” appears in some of your paintings. Could you elaborate on what this means for you and how it connects to your broader themes?

Some paintings directly reflect this idea of transforming motifs into ‘infinite geometric’ forms. In some of these works, I highlight and reconstruct traditional patterns or natural shapes, inspired by particular places and landscapes. Even though the paintings are more ‘forgiving’ they highlight how something as familiar as a plant or weaving pattern, tied to specific locations, can be reimagined as one ‘shape’ or motif. The drawings or paperwork offer a raw, intimate glimpse into the play of the motifs, emphasising how they can evolve into something new while still holding onto their connection to real landscapes. By layering these drawings within the larger compositions, the paintings capture the tension between the recognisable and the abstract, allowing viewers to see the infinite potential within each form.

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About Alia Ahmad

Alia Ahmad (b. 1996) was raised in Riyadh and holds a BA in Digital Culture from King’s College London (2018) and an MA from the Royal College of Art. Her work, focused on painting, explores the intersection of memory, place, and landscape. Influenced by Riyadh’s industrial and desert environment, Ahmad’s colour palette reflects the region’s contrasts, with her dreamlike landscapes blending emptiness and lushness. Her work emphasises local flora and the shifting nature of day and night. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Albion Jeune, London (2024), and group exhibitions at the Diriyah Biennale, Riyadh (2024).

Location: Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai

Dates: 19 September – 22 October 2024