GALLOIRE: “ELEMENTAL PERCEPTION”
Elemental Perception brings together five world-renowned artists: Julio Le Parc, Blair Thurman, Jan Kalab, Miguel Chevalier, Jean-Baptiste Bernadet at Galloire in City Walk, Dubai. These artists collectively manipulate geometric forms, and utilise colour and light to evoke a fundamental response from, and innate connection with the viewer. The works invite one to intuit; to see by sense: They prompt us to consider the organic and the machine, our path from primordial soup to our technology-driven tomorrow, and whilst some of the works invite us to revel in pure beauty and our romantic dreams of youth, they also challenge us to ponder our ultimate trajectory of decay.
Location: Galloire, London Street, City Walk, Dubai
Duration: 9 December 2022 – 15 January 2023
Ziad Al Najjar: Under Your Eyes
For Under Your Eyes Al Najjar has produced a new body of work over 18- months that comprises silkscreen prints and works on canvas. Establishing an interplay between organic and inorganic forms Al Najjar infuses his symbolically dense work with icons and influences from the natural world and his everyday encounters. The artist considers the connectedness between the natural, constructed and spiritual realms and how they relate to his lived experience in the contemporary moment. For this body of work subject matter as far-reaching as historic 13th – 17th century Islamic depictions that the artist has encountered at the Art Institute of Chicago, Persian miniatures, as well as natural elements, have informed Al Najjar’s abstract compositions.
Location: Tabari Artspace, DIFC Dubai
Duration: 12 – 27 January 2022
Her Highness Sheikha Maytha Bint Obaid Al Maktoum: Rhythms of the Deep
A one-of-a-kind multi-sensory solo exhibition, inspired by the Ancient Greek Myth of Aphrodite & Psyche, tells the story of human flaws with an emphasis on destruction bolstered by envy.
The artist represents the absolute truth through the subject, metaphors, and composition of her monumental paintings. The Symbolism encountered in these powerful works represents a synthesis of form and feeling. The artist envisioned the holistic design of the exhibition and its multi-sensory architecture while creating the artworks. She imagined viewing this collection as an immersive experience.
Location: Firetti Contemporary, Dubai
Duration: 7 December 2022 – 31 January 2023
Larry Amponsah: The Soil From Which We Came
Central to The Soil From Which We Came is Amponsah’s latest series of large-scale paintings, brimming with intricately cross-pollinated images seemingly torn from magazines and other media. Images of fruits, plants, vegetables and flowers that would normally seem difficult to intersect naturally are cleverly planted into each work. The compositions materialise from smaller collages which are scanned, digitally manipulated, printed onto canvas and worked on further using traditional painting techniques.
Illusive to the senses, these works do not fall under the category of painting when looked at, and/or under collage when observed closer. They are neither shaped by reality nor fiction, but reside in the space between the physical and imagined.
Location: Lawrie Shabibi, Al Serkal Avenue, Dubai
Duration: 11 January – 17 February 2023
Rula Halawani: For You Mother
The For You Mother series is split into two parts: Chapter I comprises eleven photomontages, a marriage between archival images of Palestinian families before the 1948 mass diaspora and the Palestinian landscape captured through Rula’s lens. Chapter II is the result of treated and damaged photographic negatives.
The artist is left questioning mother, motherland, and mother nature. Reconnecting with her childhood activities, Halawani examines how the Palestinian landscape and natural environment have changed. In an effort to not only revive souls and spirits but also wildflowers and ancient stone chains’ Salasel’, the people and natural environment that disappeared and still disappear.
Location: Ayyam Gallery, B11, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai
Duration: 11 January – 20 February 2023
GIL HEITOR CORTESÃO: À Rebours
The artist brings to life new works using his inherent technique – reverse painting on plexiglass. À Rebours translating to “backwards” in French, the title lends itself to this process.
Cortesão has honed his reverse glass process, characterized by painting on the opposite side of the transparent surface – making the more classical approach to painting, inverted. For some this may seem like a backward approach to painting since what would normally go last on a canvas is applied first in this technique. However, in his use of this method, Cortesão is able to deconstruct a scene into several levels and then carefully reconstruct it to offer a melancholic stillness.
Location: CARBON 12, Dubai
Duration: 11 January – 20 February 2023