Art Dubai 2011

Stand A37

Press Release

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Ayyam Gallery’s diverse selection of painting and sculpture for this year’s Art Dubai represents a wide spectrum of contemporary Arab art with significant examples by Khaled Takreti, Mustafa Ali, Nadim Karam, Samia Halaby, Safwan Dahoul and Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, underscoring some of the major innovations and trends that have come to define regional visual culture.

The portraits of Paris-based Syrian artist Khaled Takreti are executed with great attention to formulistic detail. Takreti’s deeply psychological subjects exist within a delicate setting, as thin lines dissect the composition into horizontal and vertical planes against solid color fields. While his earlier works possess a quiet force as they represent elegant and demure women, his latest canvases have become increasingly campy, with a refreshing sense of freedom and playfulness.

Having also just completed a towering installation for “Told/Untold/Retold,” Amsterdam-based Iraqi artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji contributes haunting mixed media compositions that explore a variety of themes, including everything from the universality of the human condition to experiences of exile and fragmentation. A visual artist, print maker and designer, Alfraji often blends art and philosophy as a means of expanding the formulistic and conceptual boundaries of his aesthetic.

The anonymous figure of “Untitled,” a recent work by Syrian sculptor Mustafa Ali, emanates with an air of mystery that runs parallel to overt underpinnings of introspection. Nameless, genderless, and bodiless, his decapitated head is shown with its eyes closed, lost in contemplation as though retreating from an entangled world. Executed with the exquisite precision of Ali’s hand, its solemn face is expressively emphatic.

Avant-garde Lebanese architect, designer and artist Nadim Karam traverses several disciplines in colorful paintings and sculptures that blend the real with the magical, offering a stable of inspired creatures and characters amidst utopian settings that question and reconfigure our modern state.

The vivid collages of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby exemplify the astounding degree to which the seasoned artist has merged the creative with the political, employing an acute sense of formulism that continues to push the boundaries of painting while deconstructing how we understand (and depict) the world. With large pieces of canvas that have been painted, cut, then arranged into abstractions, she places a heavy emphasis on palette, brushwork and surface to create floating forms that teem with movement and energy.

Continuing an evocative series of paintings that has evolved over several decades, Syrian painter Safwan Dahoul captures his lone heroine with a deep sense of solitude and foreboding. By depicting his elegant protagonist amidst a claustrophobic setting with the sharp edges of ordinary objects and abrupt lines of architectural details, he accentuates the highly psychological overtones of his subject, creating a complex spatiality that enthralls the viewer.

Selected Works

Safwan DAHOUL 'Dream 40' 250 X 640 cm. Acrylic on Canvas 2011

Nadim Karam 'Father Elephant' 150 x 200 x 24 cm. Glass and Resin breads on Wood Sculpture 2009

Mustafa Ali 'Untitled' 170 x 80 x 125 cm. Wood Sculpture Unique 2010

Samia Halaby 'Big Oak, Homage to the Shawnee' 274.5 x 152.5 cm. Acrylic on Canvas Collage 2006-2009

Nadim Karam 'Enlightenment' 200 x 360 cm. Mixed Media on Canvas 2010

Sadik Kwaish Alfraji 'Waiting for Godot' 200 x 100 cm. Lambda Print Edition of 5 2011

Sadik Kwaish Alfraji 'Waiting for Godot' 200 x 100 cm. Lambda Print Edition of 5 2011

Khaled Takreti "Scientifiques de L'absurde" 180 x 330 cm Mixed Media on Canvas, 2011

TH71 Thaier HELAL 'Untitled' 250 X 180 cm. Mixed Media on Canvas 2010