Since 1970, she has held countless solo exhibitions, both in the US and abroad and has been featured in a number of groundbreaking group exhibitions of Arab art throughout the US and Europe. With recent blockbuster sales of her paintings at auction, her works have become increasingly sought-after by collectors.

Although her exceptional painting style has changed dramatically over the years—from large canvases exploring the colour planes of geometric and helix formations to colourist assemblages that speak of movement and nature—she has continued to push the boundaries of art for over fifty years. As such, she is recognized as a major innovator of the school of abstraction in contemporary Arab art. Halaby’s vivid canvases have been hailed by a number of international publications including The New York Times and Art in America. Forever on the cutting edge of art, in 1983 she created a computer programme for kinetic paintings, resulting in several audio-visual presentations including a tour of Syria, Palestine, and Jordan and a performance accompanied by live musicians at New York’s Lincoln Centre in 1998.

Halaby’s work is housed in several museum collections worldwide, most notably the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, The British Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Detroit Institute of Art. As an art historian, she has been instrumental in curating several exhibitions in the United States. In 2002, her many years of scholarship led to the publishing of Liberation Art of Palestine, one of the few English language books on contemporary Palestinian art available today. 

Born in Damascus in 1966, Rabbo lived in Libya and Lebanon prior to ultimately residing in France in 1978. As one of the Arab world’s most important photojournalists, his work has been published in the world’s most widely circulated publications, from Time Magazine to Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and Asharq Al Awsat, where he signed more than 60 magazine covers. From a twenty-year career, his portfolio amassed intimate portraits of head of states, war coverage in Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, world-renowned celebrities like the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, as well as high society events such as the Cannes Film Festival and Paris Fashion Week.

In 2012, Ammar Abd Rabbo held his first artistic exhibition entitled Coming Soon at Ayyam Gallery, Beirut. This exhibition transported the viewer beyond the wall of informality and provided a privileged look into one of life’s most intimate spheres. Follow the Leader, Rabbo’s second solo exhibition held in Dubai, focused on the spontaneous moments that portray the humanity of our world leaders. Rabbo was first featured in The Young Collector’s Auction 13, where his portrait of Queen Elizabeth II sold well above estimate. 

Renowned for her brave subject matter and use of taboo images, Kuwaiti artist Shurooq Amin explores the double standards, hypocrisy, and secret lives that exist beneath the surface of a conservative state. Her work illustrates the hidden, hedonistic world and dichotomy of the Arab man: religious preacher, weekend alcoholic; political activist, well-known party-animal; conservative father, secret playboy.

Born in Kuwait in 1967, Shurooq Amin lives and works in the country. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2013); Lahd Gallery, London (2011); CAN, New York (2010); Tilal Gallery, Kuwait (2010); 11th International Cairo Art Biennale (2008). A retrospective of her work was featured in the biannual art journal, Contemporary Practices: Visual Arts from the Middle East, and Amin was awarded the artist of the year by the Arab Women Awards, Kuwait Chapter in 2013. 

Born in Lebanon in 1987, Lara Zankoul lives and works in Beirut. She has participated in group exhibitions within the Middle East and France. Part of the Shabab Ayyam incubator programme, she was an award recipient at the 2011 Shabab Ayyam Photography Competition and in 2013, she held her first solo exhibition at Ayyam Gallery Beirut. 

Shaweesh is a young Saudi street artist based in Riyadh, part of a growing movement of young street artists in the country. He has five years of experience creating digital art, typography and graffiti. He first participated in Dubai’s The Young Collectors Auction 16 in September 2013, where his United Nations (Yoda & King Faisal) sold for nine times above estimate. 

- Rumi

In the Filled with Light series, a dervish performs the Sema dance. While the dervish is part of the environment, through his dance he becomes an extension of it, a soul filled with light, spreading into the rustic surroundings to form one fluid set of photos. The double exposure experiment is a way to explore the surreal state of mind that the dervish reaches while whirling to connect with the divine. It's a representation of the lightness he emerges himself in, where two parallel universes are joined in one body.

Born in 1981 in Lebanon, Mohamad Badr lives and works in Dubai. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2011 Shabbab Ayyam Photography Competition, and the Live Achrafieh Honorary Award for his contribution to the community (2011). He was also nominated for the fourth cycle of the Prix Pictet, the world’s leading photographic award in sustainability (2012). He is the founder of the Lakum Hamra2akoum wa Li Hamra2, photography project in Lebanon, and Mosaic: Achrafieh International Photography Contest, Lebanon’s first international photography competition. Selected solo shows include Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2012). 

Dominated by black, white and muted tones, Dahoul’s canvases explore the relationship between the figure and its background, between the human being and space. His minimalist use of colour references his surroundings and is a response to the absence of colour now seen on the streets of Syria and the rest of the Middle East.

Firmly rooted in the personal, Dahoul’s work is also rich in art historical references; from the elaborately maquillaged eyes and cavalier perspective of Pharaonic Egypt, to gestural fingers that trace their lineage to Roman oration; to the checkerboard patterning common on Insular metalwork. The geometric shapes and curvature in the lines of Dahoul’s figures allude to the elaborate patterns of Arabic calligraphy.

Born in 1961 in Hama, Syria, Safwan Dahoul lives and works in Dubai. Selected solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery London (2013); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2011, 2009); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2011); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2009). 

Abdulnasser Gharem was born in 1973 in the Saudi Arabian city of Khamis Mushait. In 1992, Gharem graduated from the King Abdulaziz Academy before attending The Leader Institute in Riyadh. In 2003, he studied at the influential Al-Meftaha Arts Village in Abha and in 2004, Gharem and the Al-Meftaha artists staged a group exhibition titled Shattah, which challenged existing modes of art practice in Saudi Arabia. Abdulnasser Gharem co-founded the Edge of Arabia project with Stephen Stapleton and Ahmed Mater as a platform to support Saudi contemporary artists reach an international audience.

Gharem has exhibited in Europe, the Gulf and the United States, including at the Victoria & Albert and British Museums, Martin Gropius-Bau, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Palazzo Grassi (Francois Pinault Foundation) and at the Venice, Sharjah and Berlin Biennales. In 2012, Gharem made history when his installation Message/Messenger sold for a world record price at Christie’s Dubai, establishing him as the highest selling living Gulf artist. Gharem donated the proceeds of this sale to foster art education in his native country. His first monograph Abdulnasser Gharem: Art of Survival was published in London in October 2011. He currently lives and works in Riyadh. 

The work of Iranian painter Afshin Pirhashemi examines the complexities of life in modern day Iran. Pirhashemi is fascinated by the role of women in contemporary Iranian society, and their relationships with the world around them. On sparse or empty backgrounds, his largely monochromatic, photo-realistic depictions nod to gothic fantasy in an exploration of issues of social and political identity.

Born in 1974 in Urmia, Afshin Pirhashemi now lives and works in Tehran. His works are housed in public and private collections throughout the Middle East and Europe and he is the recipient of awards from the 2003 Tehran 6th International Art Biennial, and the 2004 Beijing Art Biennial Award. Solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery, Dubai (2013); Homa Art Gallery, Tehran (2009); Seyhoun Art Gallery, Tehran (2005); and Barg Gallery, Tehran (2005). Group exhibitions include In & Out, Milan (2009); Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran (2004, 2003). 

Athier Mousawi is a British Iraqi visual artist whose work over recent years has centered on posing unanswerable questions against undefined answers and forming a visual narrative between the two. Since graduating from Central St. Martins, London in 2007, the subject of much of his work has been Iraq and his diasporic relationship to his intrinsic yet foreign homeland, as well as the idea of nostalgic referencing to how we idolise and remember our past, present and future.

Of the main constructs used within Athier's painting the initial response is that of scale and colour which guide the viewer through his compositions. The various ways of absorbing with his works are dependent on viewer positioning and distance from the canvases and ergonomic interaction. Symbolism in these large scale paintings is weaved through layers of organic figurative and geometric Islamic forms. Large shapes frame moments of detail, acting like windows into another, very personal place, which the viewer is invited into. Although predominantly a painter, Mousawi’s more graphic drawing style uses similar devices of surrounding intense narrative with rigid forms.

Separate to his artistic practice, Athier has worked extensively as an educator within the UK and on the field. For three consecutive years from 2007 Athier worked as the British Museum’s Arab Artist in Residence working in schools throughout the UK. He was selected as the Chasing Mirrors Artist in Residence by The National Portrait Gallery for 2011, leading workshops in community centres through London. As well as a major collaborative exhibition, Chasing Mirrors was a platform for educational projects with the gallery which ran parallel to the three months of the exhibition. In 2012, Athier worked in a number of refugee camps as a workshop leader in Beirut, Istanbul, Amman and Jarash. Athier lives and works between Paris, London and Istanbul. 

The sculptures, installations and photographs of Iranian artist Farzad Kohan seek to address issues of migration and identity, communicating across the divides of culture, language, religion and gender. As a manifestation of his desire to articulate his inner workings through the ordinary things that surround us, Kohan often makes use of found objects and materials as diverse as wood, coffee, milk, motor oil and sand. Recent collage works are comprised of layered newspaper advertisements mounted on canvas and painted.

Kohan comments that his work is merely a reflection of how he sees the world around him. ‘Many find that life is a struggle of both the emotional and the physical...My art reflects what is often a simultaneous experience of both the struggle and beauty that comprises life. With my art, I communicate across cultural divides, language barriers, religion and gender. I’m a citizen of this world.’

Born in Tehran in 1967, Farzad Kohan lives and works in Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai in 2013 and Seyhoun Gallery, Los Angeles in 2006. Selected group exhibitions include Human Rights Awareness Tour, USA (2008); JFerrari Gallery, Los Angeles (2008); Eagle Rock Cultural Centre for Arts (2008); Phantom Galleries, Los Angeles (2007). 

Born in Tehran in 1978, Mohamad Bozorgi holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering as well as an MBA from the Industrial Management Institute and Momtaz degrees from the Calligraphy Association of Iran. After training with the Society of Iranian Calligraphers for 15 years, Bozorgi left the Society to pursue more innovative calligraphic forms.

Studying classical calligraphic forms such as divani, kufic, nastaliq, naskh, sols, Mohaggegh and broken nastaliq, allowed Bozorgi to develop his own uniquely contemporary characters based on Arabic and Persian roots. He approaches calligraphy with an architectural eye that is evident in the mathematical structure and symmetry of letters, especially those in his Crying for Honour series. Employing his engineering background, Bozorgi makes qualitative calculations in building his works, using geometry to create abstract illusions of movement and space. 

Born in Beirut in 1976, Ali Cherri is a visual artist and designer working with video, installation, performance, multimedia and print. His recent exhibition includes Bad Bad Images, solo show at Galerie Imane Farès (2012), Dégagements, Institut du Monde Arabe (2012), Exposure, Beirut Art Center (2011), Southern Panorama, VideoBrasil (2011), Beirut, Kunsthalle Vienna (2011) and A Fleur de Peau, solo show at Gallery Regard Sud (2011). Ali is a graduate in Graphic Design from the American University in Beirut. In parallel to his design work, he finished his Master’s degree in Performing Arts at DasArts, Amsterdamn, in 2005.

Le Pyromane was made in response to the act of self-immolation as political protest. The artwork, which was presented at the solo show A fleur de peau in 2012, spells out 'I am not a pyromaniac' using hundreds of matchsticks. As the artist states, 'On december 17, 2011, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, doused himself with paint thinner and lit a match. His desperate act sparked uprisings across the arab world, and inspired a large number of other men to set themselves on fire. Those serial self-immolations provoked me with horror and wonder. I began questioning how could someone reach this extreme political statement? The installation 'le pyromane' (the arsonist) states what this act is not the result of: an obsessive desire to set fire to things.' 

Born in Cairo in 1974, Amal Kenawy studied film and fashion design at the Cinema Institute and received an undergraduate degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Helwan University in 1999. Beginning her career while studying in Egypt, Kenawy quickly gained recognition for her multimedia works and installations, winning the UNESCO Grand Prize at the International Cairo Biennale. Later, she received the Pro-Helvetia Swiss Arts Council artist residency in 2004 and was honoured with the Global Crossings Prize in Los Angeles in 2005. Among Egypt’s internationally recognised artists, she has been given solo exhibitions at Townhouse Gallery (Cairo), Darat al Funun (Amman) and Galerie El Marsa (Tunis) and has participated in group shows and collective events such as Ashkal Alwan’s Home Works Forum, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art’s inaugural exhibition Told/Retold/Untold, the Sharjah Biennial and the Venice Biennale.

Working with her mentor and brother Abdel Ghabi Kenawy, an established artist in his own right, for over a decade, her work often explores issues of existentialism, spirituality, and the experiences of man within a physical and metaphysical world. Employing an intricate approach to installation, photography and new media work, she attempts to surpass cultural borders, speaking to viewers that experience her work in a variety of contexts. Of this aspect of her work Kenawy has said, ‘I don’t think of my work as feminist in the traditional sense of the word. In a way, I am concerned with pain and isolation among other sentiments. On a technical level I try to create a visual language accessible to different audiences, a language that transcends the specificities of culture, be it Eastern or Western.’ (Darat al Funun, 2007) 

Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1971, Anas Al-Alousi received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Baghdad. A member of the Iraqi Artist Association and the Iraqi Plastic Arts Association, he has nearly two decades of experience in bronze sculpture and has exhibited throughout the Middle East in numerous festivals and such revered art spaces as Quibab Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi, 4Walls Gallery in Dubai and Al Orfali Gallery in Baghdad. Interested in public works for some time, he has completed several significant monuments in Iraq and was recently commissioned by Ajban Farms in Abu Dhabi to produce one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the Arab world. Al-Alousi presently works and resides in Egypt.

Although a student of Italian sculptural techniques and the utilisation of traditional material such as bronze, Al-Alousi’s expressionist forms speak of an unconventional approach to sculpture, one that draws from nature with playful figurative forms that ignite the imagination. Chair playfully personifies a mundane object with the substitution of human legs for the legs of the chair 

Ahmad Moualla has become well known for his beautiful and highly dramatic canvases. Often composed on a grand scale, Moualla’s theatrical paintings wrestle with the often strained relationships between society and the individual; of the power of past and present icons and by the increased blurring of line between reality and fiction, and the conscious and subconscious mind.

Born in Syria in 1958, Moualla is considered as one of the leading post-modern artists in Syrian Expressionism. He was the first to introduce performance in his work, first exhibited at Atassi Gallery in 1997 with the exhibition entitled A Tribute to Saadallah Wannaous (the late Syrian playwright). Moualla graduated from the Damascus University of Fine Arts followed by the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. He has since participated in various exhibitions in Dubai, Cairo, Paris, Istanbul and Graz (Austria) among others 

Born in Amman, Jordan in 1943, Asma Fayoumi’s formative years as a painter occurred in the 1960s with the emergence of a particular school of Syrian abstraction that was lead by the Italian artist and instructor, Guido La Regina.

A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, she worked alongside fellow students Asaad Arabi, Faek Dahdouh, and Sakher Farzat, who later became recognised as seminal artists. Her journey as a professional artist unfolded at one of the most critical periods of the regional art scene; when modernist schools first displayed evidence of a gradual transition into contemporary modes of representation and a charged political climate urged regional culture to take up the call for social change.

Fayoumi has been featured in countless solo and group exhibitions both at home and abroad and is acknowledged as a seminal female painter, one whose career has paved the way for subsequent generations of women artists. Today, Fayoumi’s paintings are admired for their unique approach to depicting a range of subjects. From mythological figures to the stark realities of war, she freely reflects 'an explosion of internal struggle', giving her work a profound sensitivity and intuition. From her early days of depicting Damascene scenes using colourist principles of abstraction to her recent writhing compositions of quickly hatched strokes of paint, which are applied vigorously to create arcs of movement, violence, wind, chagrin, fear and horror, Fayoumi’s signature style of layered and laboured figurative compositions has remained committed to depicting the world around her with fervent imagination. 

Fateh Moudarres studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome between 1954 and 1960. He continued his postgraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris between 1969 and 1972. Upon returning to Syria, he was lecturer and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts until 1993.

Internationally renowned as the pioneer of Modernism in Syria, Moudarres created a unique style influenced by primitive and ancient Syrian arts and Christian iconography. Moudarres also wrote several collections of poetry and short stories, and participated in numerous exhibitions including the Venice Biennial, 1961, the Sao Paulo Biennale of 1963 and 1975, New York International Art Fair, 1964, Contemporary Arab Art Exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris, 1980, the Seoul Biennial, 1986, the Cairo Biennial, 1994, and a retrospective of his work was held in 1995 at L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. 

Samir Rafi, a prominent Egyptian modernist, was widely known for combining international trends with traces of Pharaonic art in compositions that poignantly depicted modern day Egypt.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, where he focused on the decorative arts, he went on to complete a PhD in art history from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1953. Returning to Egypt amidst the fervor of pan-Arab nationalism, he exhibited extensively in Cairo and worked alongside a number of artists who were seeking to express a national identity through the symbolic, and whose aesthetic had fully divorced itself from the legacy of colonialism. After teaching decorative arts at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, he later moved to Algeria, where he taught art history.

Rafi was among a number of influential pioneers who chose to focus on images and scenes of everyday life rather than the romanticised or embellished portraits of the upper echelons of Egyptian society that had dominated local art prior to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s revolution. When placed within this important historical context, in which Egypt was experiencing radical cultural transformations with artists and intellectuals often at the helm, his seemingly modest compositions, are in fact quite earth shattering. The manner in which he depicted his subjects is also striking, as they exude a certain foreboding and their melancholy dispositions seem to point to a cautious (almost apprehensive) outlook towards Egypt’s future. 

Born in Homs, Syria in 1939, Ghassan Sebai studied Oil Painting at the University of Alexandria, Egypt and continued to train in the Visual Arts with a specialisation in Engraving at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Paris, from which he graduated in 1970. In 1974, Sebai returned to Syria where he taught Engraving at the University of Damascus until 2002 and was an active member of the art scene.

A seminal Modernist, his early works depict nature and the Al-Assi River that lay near his childhood home in Homs. His artistic style was heavily influenced by metaphysical interpretations in art, which lead to further experiments and developed into an impressionist language that contained elements of symbolism. As such, Sebai’s paintings treated his frequently political and social subjects with a modern approach that was influenced by both local and international schools of art. Hints of Cubism grace his figures as he belongs to a movement in Arab art that sought to depict the struggles of man in a universal language, one that was widely understood and admired thanks to the breakthroughs of Picasso and Braque and later the Mexican Muralists.

He has participated in countless exhibitions inside and outside Syria and his works are preserved in the National Museum of Damascus, the Beiteddine Museum in Lebanon, and The Royal Museum in Jordan, in addition to a number of other local and international private collections. 

Born in Damascus in 1938, Nazir Nabaa studied Oil Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo between 1959-1965 before traveling to Paris to continue his academic training several years later. Upon returning to Damascus he worked as an instructor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, where he was part of a significant group of artists that influenced a generation of contemporary painters. An accomplished artist in his own right, he received many honours at the start of his career, most notably from the Alexandria Biennale and the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, as he participated in exhibitions at home and abroad. Today, his paintings are housed in the National Museum of Damascus, the Syrian Presidential Palace and Ministry of Culture and countless private collections.

Although a highly skilled draughtsman, Nabaa quickly became attracted to modernist techniques that utilised Cubism and other forms of semi-abstraction to depict both realistic and metaphoric subjects. This led to an expressionist style that utilised symbolism as he became interested in mythology and regional folklore, in addition to the challenges that were specific to modern Arab life. In many instances these interests were combined in a single composition, creating powerful representations that could speak to all cultures. 

Born in Hama, Syria in 1935, Khouzayma Alwani studied painting and theatrical design at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, and in Paris. He is currently on the Fine Arts faculty at the University of Damascus.

Humanity, with its justice and injustice, is always the theme of Alwani's work. The format is deceptively simple and the technique straight-forward. Each painting freezes its statement in a border of colour which serves also as foreground to the action taking place inside. Often figures reach outside the borders — trying to enter the main scene or trying to escape it. His themes are universal, yet are drawn from the past and present of the society in which he lives. 

Iranian artist, Afsoon spent her childhood in Iran, received a BA in Media and Communications from Fresno State University in 1984, and presently resides in London. Her nomadic lifestyle is reflected in the clear meeting of East and West in her artworks. Employing various techniques such as linocuts, photography, etching and an overlay of images and text, Afsoon creates richly varied works of art. With solo exhibitions in London and New York City, and collective exhibitions in Europe, Turkey, the UAE, Finland, and Hong Kong, Afsoon’s collages are globally recognised. Her work has been acquired by prestigious collections including the British Museum, The Farjam Collection, The Zoroastrian Institute in Paris, the Sabanci Collection in Istanbul, Salsali Private Museum, as well as the private collections of Fereydoun Ave, Farbod Dowlatshahi, and Rose Issa.

An edition of this work is presently exhibited at the British Museum’s Men From the East: Zoroastrian traditions in Persia and beyond exhibition. In this allegorical work, Afsoon presents a coin of Sassanian King Khosrow II (591 - 628 AD), surrounded by birds and nature. Though merging Zoroastrian and Persian symbols such as the winged crown with the crescent and tree of life, sewn pearls, flying birds, cypress trees and Chinese clouds prominent in miniature paintings from the Safavid era onwards, Afsoon maintains a delicate contemporaneity amongst so many historical references. 

Shirazi’s calligraphic paintings have featured in over twenty solo exhibitions in Tehran, Greece, Tajikistan, Qatar, Morocco, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, and are housed in private collections across the globe including presidential and noble residences. His paintings can be found in the Sharjah Art Museum, the Tehran Quran Museum and the Qatar Museum of Islamic Art.

Of the artist, Master Iranian calligrapher Gholamhossein Amirkhani has stated, ‘Shirazi has a bright background in Iranian calligraphy. He has achieved a high level of calligraphy during his forty years of efforts. His works are original with no signs of imitation. His works are not comparable with those of other masters; they are unique.’ 

The unconventional photographs of Syrian artist and film-maker Ammar Al Beik possess a highly developed cinematic quality. Often taking the form of large ultra-chrome prints on canvas, he has recently begun producing overtly political works that incorporate elements of video, sculpture and animation. His photographs toy with the manipulation of light and contrast and delve into the art of visual storytelling. Believing that art must not only imitate, but capture life, he upholds the narrative of his subjects with unflinching scrutiny and heightened sensitivity.

Born in 1972 in Damascus, Ammar Al Beik lives and works in Dubai. Internationally renowned for his work in film and documentary, he has shown at numerous international festivals including the Sao Paulo International Film Festival; Edinburgh Documentary Film Festival; Berlin International Film Festival; and Locarno International Film Festival. He is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Jury Prize Winner at the Busan International Short Film Festival, Korea (2012); Golden Award at the Rotterdam 7th Arab Film Festival, Holland (2007); the Golden Award at the Tetouan 13th Film Festival, Morocco (2007); and the Jury Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival, Australia (2002). In 2006, he was the first Syrian filmmaker to receive the award for best documentary at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2011, he presented The Sun’s Incubator, a work exploring the domestic affects of the Arab Spring, at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. In 2014, Al Beik will present four of his films at the Fotofest Biennial of Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art in Houston, Texas. Solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2013); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2011, 2010, 2008); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2010). 

Dania Sulaiman Al-Saleh was born in Riydah in 1970, attended King Saud University and followed art courses in London at Saint Martin’s, Prince’s School of Traditional Art, The Slade School of Art and at The Art Academy. She has exhibited in several collective exhibitions in Kuwait, Jeddah and Riyadh.

Confusion is concerned with ‘herd mentality’ and the impulses to follow prescribed roles, attitudes and ideologies. Encased within three frames meant to indicate the superficiality of our world, arrows flow in clock- and counter-clockwise directions, indicating disorientation. Al Saleh utilises classical Islamic geometry as a form of visual language and transforms its sacred patterning into a contemporary form of silent communication. Her choice of watercolour as medium manifests the shapes into a translucent form and structure. 

Born in Bahrain in 1956 of Saudi nationality, Faisal Samra graduated from École National Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. Prior to becoming a full-time artist, Samra worked as a Stage Designer for Saudi television, a Fine Arts and Graphics Consultant for the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France, carried out research on Islamic design and artisan works throughout Morocco, and attended the College of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan. In 2005, he was Artist in Residence at Cité International des Arts in Paris, France and was an acting jury member at the Alexandria Biennale.

Samra has held numerous solo exhibitions since 1974 throughout Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, France, Bahrain, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Jordan, in addition to collective exhibitions in the United States of America, Germany, Iraq, Egypt, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. His works are housed in many private collections such as the Khaled Shoman Foundation, Darat Al Funun, and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan; the private collection of Sheikha Paula Al Sabah in Kuwait; The British Museum, London, England; Bahrain National Museum; and the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France. 

Born in 1988 in Jeddah, Huda Beydoun graduated with a degree in Special Education, majoring in Autism Spectrum Disorders. While painting was Beydoun’s first discipline, recent works involve digital art, mixed media and photography, which she further enhanced with studies in Graphic Design and Photography at Dar Al-Hekma College, Jeddah. Beydoun has displayed her work in various art exhibitions such as Athr Gallery, ROOM NO.5, Jeddah, and Amber Gallery, Morocco.

The series Documenting the Undocumented is an asymmetrical reflection of the interaction (or lack there of) between some undocumented immigrants and the artist. This series was challenging as many undocumented immigrants are being deported from the Kingdom, therefore Beydoun masks their faces and identities with the docile Mickey Mouse silhouette. Beydoun chose the character of Mickey Mouse for his global significance and innocent, joyous symbolism, as this paralleled the actual unsettling feelings experienced by these undocumented immigrants while being photographed. 

Born in London in 1979, Saudi artist Khalid Zahid is a self-taught artist who believes that ‘art is an angel here to save us all’. In the past three years, Zahid has exhibited in numerous collective exhibitions in Riyadh, Kuwait and Jeddah.

Each piece he creates references our daily realities, the community and individuals we interact with day in and day out, and the ways which we can evolve these relationships to create a better reality. 

Born in 1977 in Al Baha and raised in Mecca, Rashed Al Shashai is an active patron, artist and collector promoting the Contemporary Art movement in Saudi. Al Shashai holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts, is a Founding Member of the Saudi Arabi Fine Arts Society and the Art Education Society, and is the Founder and Director of the Tasami Center for Visual Arts. He has organised many exhibitions and forums, most recently the 2011 GCC Visual Art Forum.

As an artist, his installation works comment on media bias in the filtration of news stories to the masses, the superficiality and lack of spirituality some face as a result of the extraordinary wealth obtained through oil, and the human condition. He has participated in a number of collective exhibitions within Saudi Arabia, in Budapest, Sharjah, Dubai, and Sharm Al Shiekh and his work was awarded first prize at the 2011 Media Art Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Born in Lebanon in 1957, Hanibal Srouji holds a Master degree in Fine Arts from Concordia University. Since 1989, he has been living and working between Paris, France and Beirut, Lebanon.

He has held personal exhibitions in Lebanon, France, Switzerland, United States, Japan, Kuwait and Canada. He has also participated in numerous collective exhibitions in Geneva, Paris, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, London, Tokyo, New York, California, and namely in Dubai and Abu Dhabi art fairs with the Galerie Janine Rubeiz. Recently, in April 2010, he participated in Convergence - New Art from Lebanon at the Katzen Art Center at the American University in Washington DC, most recently he was part of the exhibition, Rebirth at the Beirut Exhibition center and Pellicula in Galerie Janine Rubeiz, 2013.

He has received three awards from Quebec, France and Algeria. He has also held many prestigious posts in France, Canada and the United States. His work has been sold at Christie’s Dubai and in other prestigious auctions. His work is in public and private collections in France, Canada, Dubai, Lebanon, Morocco, Switzerland and the USA.

He has been represented by the Galerie Janine Rubeiz since 1994 where he has held many personal exhibitions. The Gallery has recently published Hanibal Srouji: Painting Fire, Water, Earth and Air as the first in a series of publications on the artists of the gallery. 

Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar works with photography, video, sculpture and performance to interrogate the problematic situation in his native country, particularly the question of recognition of the State of Palestine and the militaristic discourse around this. He uses his artistic practice as a means of thinking about questions of conflict, nationhood, home and belonging.

With chisel and hammer, Khaled Jarrar tirelessly chips away at the 8 metre high Separation Wall, working quickly to collect enough fragments of concrete to become the base medium of his sculptures. He then pulverizes these wall stones into a fine sand and mixes it into a fresh cement mixture he fills into various moulds of sports equipment, internationally symbolic characters, and nature. By recycling and re-contextualizing the concrete wall, Jarrar elevates this demeaning symbol of oppression and humiliation. As the artist states, ‘a source of separation can become a source of unity’, and the unity created is that of humanity.

Born in Jenin in 1976, Khaled Jarrar lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine. He completed his education in Interior Design at the Palestine Polytechnic University in 1996, then graduated from the International Academy of Art Palestine with a BA in Visual Arts in 2011. Jarrar rose to prominence with his 2007 exhibition At the Checkpoint, which was placed in full view of the Israeli soldiers at Howarra & Qalandia checkpoint. Recent solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery London (2013); Galerie Guy Bartschi, Geneva (2013); NEWTOPIA: The State of Human Rights Contemporary Arts, Mechelen and Brussels (2012); Galerie Polaris, Paris (2012); Al-Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah (2009); Al-Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah (2007); International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah (2007). Recent group exhibitions include SubRosa: the Language of Resistance at the University of South Florida Conemporary Art Museum (2013); the Jakarta Biennale (2013); the Madrid Palestinian Film Festival (2013); the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012); 52nd October Salon, Belgrade (2011); Al-Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem (2010); London Film Festival, London (2010); and the Instant Video Festival, Marseille (2009). 

Born in Suez, Egypt in 1964, sculptor Khaled Zaki holds a Bachelor in Business from the Faculty of Commerce and a Master's in Restoration from the Faculty of Archaeology at Cairo University. Zaki studied Sculpture at the Al Khonany Museum of Art in Giza and perfected his use of stone and bronze in the various workshops in Pietrasanta Lu, Italy.

A versatile artist, he has also been commended on his painting and in 2000, won a national competition for the design and execution of a monumental sculpture in Galan Square, Cairo. Zaki has participated in global exhibitions and symposiums and his sculptures are highly coveted. He recently held the honour of representing his homeland in the Egyptian Pavilion of the 2013 Venice Biennale. His works can be found in the Egyptian Museum for Modern Sculpture in Aswan, the Egyptian Museum for Modern Art, Cairo, and in private collections in the United States, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, and Libya. 

Renowned Syrian artist Mustafa Ali creates evocative, monumental sculptures forged from metal, marble, and wood. Often alluding to stories from ancient Syrian mythology, his work is primarily figurative, capturing the natural beauty of the human form.

Employing a laboured process in which the rawness of wood is treated with a bronze-like finish, Ali accentuates the natural contours of his medium while creating a dramatic patina-like surface that lends a timeless appearance to his work.

Born in Latakia, Syria in 1956, Mustafa Ali lives and works in Damascus . He is the Director of the non-profit Mustafa Ali Art Foundation, which presents exhibitions, workshops, lectures and cultural events throughout the year to local Damascus artists and the public.

His work is housed in private and public collections throughout the world, including the National Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Damascus, the Jordan National Gallery in Amman, the Sharjah Museum of Art, and the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Public art commissions include The Gate of Syria at the Mediterranean Olympiad in Pari, Italy, and The Tower of Memory at the Damascus International Fairground. He has participated in international biennales including the International Symposium for Sculptors in Valencia, Spain (2001); the Latakia Sculpture Biennial (1997); the Sharjah Biennial (1995); and the Biennial of Alexandria, Egypt (1994). 

One of the generation of Syrian artists who came of age during the Arab Renaissance - or Nahda - of the 1960s, Asaad Arabi continues to explore the region’s social taboos through his Expressionist works. Alive with colour and movement, Arabi’s canvases are concerned with the hidden world and with contrasts and duality, such as those that exist between the veiled and unveiled, sometimes nude women, and the exterior and interior of Damascene houses.

Born in Damascus in 1941, Asaad Arabi lives and works in Paris. He holds a PhD in Aesthetics from the Sorbonne University and his work on aesthetic theory has been widely published in both French and Arabic. Selected solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Jeddah (2013); DIFC, Dubai (2011); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2010); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2009); Cairo Biennial (2004); Sircov Gallery, Brest, France (2003); Kuwait Museum (2003). His works are housed in museum collections including the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, Barcelona Contemporary Museum of Art, The National Museum, New Dehli, and South Korea’s Museum in Seoul. 

Born in 1962, Reza Lavasani received his Bachelor of Arts in Painting from University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Lavasani’s interest in mythology, religion and history led to his study of philosophy and mysticism and this study has directly influenced his works. Characteristic of the motifs in Persian miniature paintings and manuscript illumination, yet with a modernly abstract and fable-like rendering of wind, waves, and animals, Lavasani’s paintings are strongly recognizable. His oil on canvas works present visual interpretations of Persian literature and poetry, notably Ghazal, a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain of equally metered lines, which present the simultaneous expressions of pain and loss and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.

Lavasani has exhibited widely inside Iran and has participated in many international and domestic collective exhibitions and art fairs. His work has been included in number of important publications in and out of Iran and his diptych Horse featured at Christie’s Dubai 2009 International Modern and Contemporary Art auction realized over $18,000. 

Born in Qamishli, Syria in 1979, Kurdish artist Azad Heme graduated from the Adham Ismail Institute of Fine Arts in 2003. He has since participated in exhibitions and workshops throughout Syria, Iraq, Turkey, the UAE, and Yemen. In 2011, his paintings were featured at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. Heme has been honoured by art organizations in Saudi Arabia, Istanbul and Canada and his work is housed in prestigious collections in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Heme’s recent series of cockfight paintings have been showcased in Syria to much acclaim. Utilising the primordial nature of this act as a point of departure for the exploration of human conflict, the artist captures the relationship between good and evil, suspending his compositions in moments of tranquility and chaos with philosophical underpinnings. Inspired by the rural environment of his birthplace, he employs a muted palette of earth tones that works to accentuate the abrupt movements of his elegant, albeit doomed subjects. 

The work of Syrian artist Kais Salman seeks to challenge prevalent ideas of beauty and materialism in Middle Eastern art and society. Distorted, almost grotesque, naked forms - their large, tapered faces carried atop undersized voluptuous bodies - underscore the artificiality of the female body image and rage against the increasing commodification of women in Syrian society. Nearly monochromatic with crimson accents, his subjects are dangerous creatures, their rotund fecundity and corporeal vulnerability is countered by items such as a holstered dagger or gun in a lace garter.

Born in Tartous, Syria in 1976, Kais Salman lives and works in Damascus. In May 2010, a work from his Fashion Series appeared on the cover of the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Edition magazine, a first for an Arab artist. His paintings are currently housed in private collections throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Selected solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2012); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2010); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2010). Selcted Group exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2011; 2010); The Park Avenue Armory, New York (2008); Carthage Festival for Coast Mediterranean Sea Artists, Tunisia (2005); Damascus Museum of Modern Art. 

Syrian painter Mohannad Orabi’s embellished figures emanate a childlike innocence, reflecting his fascination with childhood experiences. In a response to the changing mood and turmoil in the region, the vibrant colouring and playfulness of his early work has gradually been replaced by an increasingly somber palette and expressive maturity. Where once his figures possessed otherworldly exaggerated features - bulky heads, expressionless and hollowed almond-shaped eyes, and full figures - they have become more clearly defined, with eyes that are noticeably marked with sadness. His characters are no longer able to remain divorced from events unfolding around them. Instead, they are now fully aware and firmly rooted in their tumultuous reality.

Born in Damascus in 1977, Mohannad Orabi currently lives and works in Cairo. Orabi graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art in Damascus in 2000 and won the first prize in The Syrian National Young Artists Exhibition in 2006. Solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Jeddah (2013); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2012); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2009); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2008), Zara Gallery, Amman (2007); and Ishtar Gallery, Damascus (2006, 2004). 

Mona Moein Ansari was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. In 2009, she graduated from Central Saint Martins University of Arts London, where she studied theater design for performance and has gone on to work as an artist.

Ansari’s paintings primarily tend to relate to an interest in offbeat things and characters. She is inspired by the emotional energy that she gets from people and things around her. Her work has been shown widely in Azadi Museum, Tehran, Palazzo Bufalini Citta Di Castello Perugia, and at the Florence Biennale. Mona Moein Ansari presently lives and works in Dubai and continues to dedicate herself to her new painting series 

A leading figure in contemporary Syrian art, Thaier Helal’s large mixed media works are at the forefront of contemporary Arab abstraction. Drawing inspiration from his immediate environment and the physical and psychic aspects of society and culture, Helal’s canvases communicate movement and energy through explosions of colour, the meticulous division of space and the repetitive layering of the surface.

Born in Syria in 1967, Thaier Helal lives and works in the United Arab Emirates. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Al Burda International Award from the Emirati Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development (2008), the Grand Gold Award at the Iran Contemporary Painting Biennial, Tehran (2005), the Award for Painting at the Sharjah International Biennial (1997), and the Distinguished Works Award at the 15th General Exhibition of the UAE Fine Arts Association (1996).

Selected solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery DIFC (2012); Ayyam Gallery Cairo (2011); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2010) Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2010); Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2006, 2003); Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi (2002); Sharjah Art Museum (2000). Selected group exhibitions include Art Paris Abu Dhabi (2008); Iran Contemporary Painting Biennial, Tehran (2005); Imagining the Book International Biennale, Alexandria (2005). 

Youssef Dweik was born in Jerusalem in 1963 and presently resides in the UAE. Since his graduation from Jordan’s Al-Yarmouk University in 1985, he has been passionately portraying the progression of his country’s forefathers and his personal feelings of the world around him in his paintings. Utilising symbols that represent the spirit of ancient Arabic history to tell his story, his paintings possess hidden depths to be unveiled by the viewer.

To achieve a balance between his commitment to telling his country’s story and his desire to create beautiful artworks, Dweik uses delicate combinations of soft, textural colours to create a quiet harmony within his works, a technique he developed as a result of years of experimentation with different methods and raw materials. 

Born in Abadan, Iran in 1979, Nazar Moosavinia received his Bachelor of Arts in Painting from Jahad University, his Master of Arts in Painting from Azad Art and Architecture University, also in Tehran, and is a dedicated member of the Iranian Painters Society (SIP). Exhibiting solo and collectively since 2006 in Tehran, London and Dubai, Moosavinia’s works have auctioned in Sotheby’s 2008 and 2010 Modern and Calligraphic Arab and Iranian Art sales in London.

One of the most imaginative artists to date, Moosavinia’s canvases erupt in beautifully and skillfully surreal worlds. Reminiscent of the creativity of Hieronymous Bosch, Moosavinia creates a fantastical and nightmarish context in his works. Presenting a contemporary point of view to Rumi’s allegorical story The Merchant and the Parrot, this work draws contrast between the past and contemporary world in the Orient; a contrast that poses a challenge to the romantic air and inflamed climate of societies in the East. This is especially intensified by depiction of bones, body organs and bruises in stark contrast with flowers, candles, and butterflies. In his contemporary depiction, individuals either become ritually masochistic or receive threats from an external force. 

Born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1972 amidst abject poverty, Nihad Al Turk has developed a mature painting style against all odds. Without formal training, yet through several years of practice and experimentation, he has established himself within the contemporary Middle Eastern art scene, holding solo exhibitions in leading art spaces in Syria and Turkey in addition to being included in a number of collective exhibitions in the United States.

Al Turk’s haunting mixed media canvases are largely influenced by his outlook on life and personal political convictions. Believing that man is innately flawed and that only through an existence filled with love can there be human progress, he drafts compositions that hint at the injustices of the surrounding world. He does so with a sophisticated technique of flattening space and utilising colour fields and patterns to give illusions of depth and dimension. Creating an aesthetic that is based on the tradition of still life painting, yet is dominated by symbolic representation, his works employ a detailed system of signs that allude to philosophical conclusions. 

Born in 1974 in Zabadani, Syria, a rural town on the outskirts of Damascus, Othman Moussa has emerged as Syria’s leading hyperrealist painter despite economic hardship. Although nurturing his love for art with alternative formal training, Moussa’s unwavering resolve and artistic prowess led him to a successful partnership with Ayyam Gallery shortly after entering its Shabab Ayyam competition for emerging artists in 2007.

A graduate of the Adham Ismail Centre for Plastic Arts and the Walid Izzat Institute for Sculpture in 2000, he began his artistic career by entering group exhibitions in Syria, including three consecutive years of the annual Youth Salon in Damascus. Holding his own among some of the region’s greats, he made his official debut in 2009 with Ayyam Gallery’s two-person exhibition Visual Dialogue, alongside distinguished painter and art critic, Asaad Arabi.

An unmatched draftsman among his peers, Moussa creates still life compositions in the tradition of 17th century Dutch painting, which used a meticulously executed realism to extract the poetic essence of everyday objects. The artist’s choice of subject matter is aligned with the hybrid approaches that have been employed by artists in the Postcolonial era who seek to assert their identity while traversing international styles.

Upholding his superb draughtsmanship and realism, Moussa’s new works veer away from traditional still life painting of inanimate objects that quietly and poetically speak to the viewer to a form of still life that shouts. 

The first appearance that inspired Oussama Baalbaki artistically was the visual image of the world, with all the condensed material that is included together with the virtual and spiritual meanings to each of the images.

His artistic research is about the imagery outcome that protrudes as a mental inner image from the relationship between a visual registered reality and a visual memory. This research triggers his creativity to paint by maintaining distance from any influence or pre judgmental thoughts. He works with a great amount of concentration in total isolation. By doing this, each new idea is the result of an interval contemplation that goes with poetry readings, and condensed visits to flash back imageries, events from another time gone by.

Born in 1978 in Lebanon, Baalbaki graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Lebanese University. He has held several solo exhibitions in Beirut and has had works exhibited in collective exhibitions in Dubai, Washington D.C., Beirut and Abu Dhabi. In 2009, Baalbaki was awarded the Silver Medal in Painting at the International Jeux de la Francophonie, in which he was selected to represent Lebanon. 

Born in Damascus, Syria, to a family of intellectuals who encouraged her love of painting as a small child, Sara Shamma graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Damascus in 1998. Following graduation, Shamma was invited to join the teaching staff of the Adham Ismail Fine Arts Institute in Damascus, where she taught for three years. Apart from her own practice and involvement in the education of young artists, Shamma has been consistently active in the Syrian art scene. She was a member of the jury for The Annual Exhibition for Syrian Artists held by the Ministry of Culture, Damascus, in 2006. In 2010, Shamma was invited to become the United Nations World Food Programme’s Celebrity Partner.

Shamma has participated in numerous solo and collective exhibitions in Syria, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Australia, the United States, and Spain. She has been the recipient of various regional and international art awards including First Prize (The Golden Medal) in the 2001 Latakia Biennial, Fourth Prize in the 2004 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, and First Prize in Painting at The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, The South Australian Museum, Adelaide, in 2008. Shamma's works can be found in public collections including The National Museum of Damascus, The British Council Collection Damascus, The Spanish Cultural Center Collection, Damascus, and in private collections across the world. 

Born in Beirut in 1964, Syrian artist Khaled Takreti studied Architecture and Design in Damascus and worked with the General Directorate of Antiquity and Museums in Syria prior to launching his career as a contemporary painter. Developing a passion for drawing at an early age, he later harnessed his talent through years of formal training. In 1995, he moved to New York City where he expanded his knowledge of art and absorbed a variety of international trends. Upon relocating to Paris in 2006, Takreti continued learning of past and contemporary trends in art and began painting in a full-time capacity.

While subtly reminiscent of a variety of artistic movements and influences, and dominated by the careful, decisive line as rendered by an architect’s hand, Takreti’s paintings maintain a freedom of composition and technique that is thoroughly modern. Drawing from his past, Takreti creates beautifully stylised portraits and scenes he regards as his visual diary. Moments and people from his memory return to life on vivid canvases. Though the compositions are based in his personal experiences, thematically each is universal and resonates with all audiences.

His paintings have been displayed in solo and collective exhibitions throughout the Middle East, Europe and the United States, and at international expositions such as the Alexandria Biennale, Art Paris, Art Hong Kong and Art Dubai. Takreti’s works are housed in the permanent collections of such prominent Middle Eastern institutions as the Syrian National Museum and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. 

Born in 1977, Palestinian artist Oussama Diab has quickly gained rank within the Middle Eastern art scene. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus, in 2002, he has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the region and has been honoured for his work with several awards from the distinguished Young Artists exhibition in Syria. Since his debut show with Ayyam Gallery Damascus in 2009, his work has continued to impress critics, while successful sales at The Young Collectors Auction have garnered the artist great recognition among regional art lovers.

The large, colourful canvases of Oussama Diab employ Pop-Art and childlike imagery as a means of exploring global political concerns. Balloons, bananas and water guns function as symbolist interpretations of current events - in contrast to the universality of their nondescript background. Both figurative and abstract, Diab’s compositions relay stories of love and hate within a conflicted society. 

The paintings of Lebanese artist Walid El Masri relentlessly examine a single material subject matter – a chair – treating it as a point of departure for greater investigations into the fundamental components of painting and as a vehicle for experiments in palette and composition. Toying with depth and space, El Masri’s work seeks to reconfigure compositional properties in order to explore the myriad variations that result from a repeated action.

Born in 1979 in Beirut, Walid El Masri lives and works in Paris. Considered a rising young talent of his generation, he has held solo shows in Damascus, Beirut, Dubai and Paris and has been featured in a number of high profile events such as Ayyam Gallery’s competition for emerging artists in 2007, in addition to several public sales. Select solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery Jeddah (2013); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2012); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2012); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2009); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2008). 

Born in Beirut in 1973, Shawki Youssef received his BFA at the Lebanese University of Beirut in 1994, before going on to complete his MSc at St. Joseph’s University in 2007. Recent solo and group exhibitions include Acid Fields at Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2013); Le Corps Decouvert at the Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012); Rebirth: Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut (2011); and Fluid Being at Green Art Gallery (2011). He lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon.

Attempting to create an uncensored stream from the unconscious to the canvas itself, Shawki Youssef tackles the physical performance of painting with an impulsiveness that is purposely never preconceived. Youssef’s anonymous bodies act as an illustration of the collective, of a society that has been affected by war, poverty and disease, and who the artist leaves — in a murderous mess — to put its individual pieces back together. 

Yasmina was born in 1988 and grew up in Helsinki, Cannes and Beirut. She received her Bachelors degree in Fine Arts from ALBA University Beirut (Academie Libanaise des Beaux-arts) in 2009 and an MFA in Digital Arts: Computer Animation from Pratt institute. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

The artist states, ‘The human condition is contained within a total eclipse and sublime dream-like images. Being an artist is praying on the wisdom to tell the difference. My dedication goes to ones with the same task: the highest one, to brotherhood and motherhood’. 

Wadia Boutaba was born in England to Moroccan parents originally from Nador, north of Morocco. Her “full of colour” paintings depict her roots and represent the diversity and uniqueness of the Moroccan culture. Although born in the UK she likes to call herself the “Moroccan Artist”, the name by which she is best known in the artistic scene.

Drawing on her childhood experiences in the UK, she seeks to represent her Moroccan roots through a cultural dialogue as she constantly faces the challenges of having two identities. Her art reflects the dichotomy of such experiences such as family holidays and childhood memories while connecting to her Moroccan roots. The colour and the freedom of her strokes show that an artist is not confined to the environment one was brought up in. She tries to live like a Moroccan, think like one, and even feel like one.

Wadia believes that art can provide a bridge between people and cultures. She draws her inspiration from women and music as the former tend to be strong and is often viewed as the rock of the home. Although a professional artist, she spends her time indulging in poetry and literature. 

Born in Tehran in 1976, Dariush Ghrahzad received formal training in painting and drawing. His paintings display such an acute realism that they are often mistaken for photographs. Ghrahzad’s works concentrate on the social and urban life of modern-day Tehran, particularly on the booming youth culture and the ways in which it quietly contravenes the rules of lslamic society. Color and atmosphere are paramount and women are depicted wearing headscarves, set against colored walls while graffiti, a new form of expression among the youth of Tehran, is reinvented as something beautiful.

Dariush Ghrahzad’s works have been exhibited in several shows in Iran, London, and New York and featured in numerous Sotheby’s & Christie’s auctions. 

Iranian artist Ehsan Nasri was born in Tehran in 1988, where he presently lives and works. He has a Diploma in Graphic Design from the School of Fine Arts Karaj, a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Science and Culture from the University of Tehran, and a Masters of Arts in Animation from Tehran University Soore. In 2013, he has exhibited at Aria Gallery and Esphahan Gallery. He has participated in Europe's Noise Festival in 2009, served as Artistic Director of Publications at Gerdoo, and participated in the 2012 Festival of Animation and Illustration in Tehran.

Nasri’s graphic work and caricatures have been published as far as Mexico and Spain. In his paintings and drawings, Nasri employs a bright palette with a fondness for red, pink and yellow. As a newspaper cartoonist, his work often references Iran and Iranian freedom.