Since relocating to Syria in the late 1990s, Riyadh Neama has employed an expressionist style in emphatic compositions that often relate back to the political strife of his native Iraq. Describing a key element of his recent works, which include a series of paintings depicting the children of post-invasion Iraq in the streets of fragmented Baghdad, Neama explains ‘I’m always trying to show the relationship between stasis and movement, between a still life and a moving life.’ The children in motion of his compositions reflect daily resilience and stand as witnesses to war. Neama’s use of colour symbolises various aspects of the war-torn country, particularly the degree to which incessant conflict has affected its people. Grey, black, and white dominate the canvas as indications of destruction and are punctuated by areas of bright green, which describes grief, and red, which signifies desire, resulting in psychologically laden compositions.

Born in 1968 in Baghdad, Iraq, Riyadh Neama currently lives and works in Damascus, Syria. Neama graduated from Baghdad University’s Faculty of Fine Arts and has exhibited throughout the Middle East and Europe, including at Rafia Gallery, Damascus (2011) and Courtyard Gallery, Dubai (2009). 

Painter Yasmina Nysten’s 2013 work uses a multi-perspectival approach to painting in which the influence of Cubism and abstraction are evident. Abstracted areas of colour, including dark green, blue, and red are brought together to create a collaged portrait for modern times; fragments, a man’s despondent eyes, an enlarged nose, and a scattered limb, make up the composition. In Nysten’s recent work mutated or elongated bodies take centre stage, often the bodies of animals are fused with human heads, these surface abnormalities suggest that something is amiss between the relationships of her painted characters, as well as to the world around them.

Yasmina Nysten was born in 1988, and received a Bachelors degree in Fine Art from ALBA University Beirut (Academie Libanaise des Beaux-arts) in 2009 and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Digital Arts: Computer Animation from the Pratt Institute in New York in 2012. She has lived in Helsinki, Cannes, and Beirut, and now resides in Brooklyn. Nysten has participated in group exhibitions since 2002, most recently in a thesis exhibition at the Pratt Institute (2012), and at Bushwick Open Studios (2011). Her work has been featured in previous editions of The Young Collectors Auction at Ayyam Gallery, Al Quoz. 

Fathallah Zamroud’s recent paintings reflect the critical perceptions of space that have come with his training in architecture and fine art and his interest in the rigorous brushwork and emphatic uses of colour of the German Expressionists. Zamroud trained as an interior architect at the Lebanese American University prior to embarking on a seven-year studio intensive with Lebanese painter Louna Maalouf. Working alongside Maalouf, he gained knowledge of various formal techniques and experimented with a range of drawing and painting media.

When depicting disintegrating cities or the swelling yet desolate camps of the displaced, Zamroud zooms in on remnants and objects such as tires, ladders, temporary roofing materials, and tarpaulin. The artist’s expressionist compositions recall the restless brushstrokes of painters such as Karl Shmidt-Rottluff and Emil Nolde while his muted palette allows the viewer to enter such scenes 'behind the surface of the real,' a place of pathos that Carla Schulz-Hoffmann once observed in the work of Max Beckmann during his exiled years in Amsterdam.

Born in Beirut in 1968, Fathallah Zamroud is a painter of Syrian-Lebanese origins. In 2014, he exhibited at Ayyam Gallery, Beirut in Material Remains, a joint exhibition with multidisciplinary artist Ginane Makki Bacho 

Elias Izoli is a self-taught realist painter whose creativity was harnessed at an exceptionally young age. In Damascus, his talent was recognised early on and he was given a solo exhibition at the Russian Cultural Centre at age seventeen. With consummate draftsmanship, a marked command of colour, and an intensive approach to capturing his subjects, Izoli’s compositions defy conventional portraiture. Recently, the impact of the Syrian war has inspired him to produce psychologically laden portraits of children caught in the crossfire of violence.

Born in Damascus in 1976, Elias Izoli lives and works in the city. He has exhibited since 1993 and was included in group shows at Ayyam Gallery Beirut and Dubai in 2010, 2012, and 2013. 

Informed by readings in literature, philosophy, and theory, many of Nihad Al Turk’s deeply psychological compositions can be read as allegorical self-portraits. Central to his work are thematic explorations of the endurance of man amidst the power struggles of good and evil—an existentialist question that has engrossed the artist for some time. Al Turk’s regular cast of imperfect creatures, mythical demons, still lifes, and botanical elements serve as the symbolic outcasts, anti- heroes, and rebels of a harrowing narrative. Recently, he has set aside the dark palette of his earlier mixed media paintings by injecting vivid hues in the form of solid colour fields that accentuate figures. This visible sense of optimism is juxtaposed with the quieting of his protagonists through a physicality that is robust and no longer disfigured as they finally escape the weight of their world.

Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1972, Nihad Al Turk lives and works in Beirut. A self-taught artist, he began drawing at a young age and pursued painting in his adolescence prior to launching his artistic career in Syria in the late 1990s. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery London, Ayyam Gallery Beirut, Ayyam Gallery DIFC and Al Quoz, Dubai (2014); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2011); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2009); the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Damascus (2009); Park Avenue Armory, New York (2008); Mark Hachem Gallery, New York (2008); Diyarbakir, Turkey (2005); and the Latakia Biennale (2003), where he was awarded the Golden Prize. 

Palestinian artist Oussama Diab applies a conceptual approach to painting by exploiting the stylistic variants of the medium as emotive prompts in order to explore how form can articulate the urgency of sociopolitical issues. In an age where digital media have taken a dominant role in filtering our everyday experiences and the construction of imagery has become integral to the negotiation of modern life, Diab addresses the contradictions and obstacles of political conflict, globalisation, and exile through playful symbolism, references to popular culture, iconic imagery, and narrative structures. With each new series he adopts a different painting style, reflecting the impermanent nature of art as it becomes increasingly conceptual and further dematerialised.

Born in 1977 in Damascus, Oussama Diab lives and works in Beirut. A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2002, he has featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the region and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Shabab Young Artists exhibition in Syria. Solo shows include Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2012); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2010-11); Ayyam Gallery Dubai (2010); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2009). 

Yasser Safi’s paintings exemplify an unconventional yet remarkable approach to depicting the human form. Essentially colourist compositions, Safi’s animated canvases attract the viewer’s eye with highly stylised portraits executed in bright hues and fluid brushwork, demonstrating an impressive command of medium. His paintings possess a distinct psychology, as he captures the fundamental nature of social interaction and the predicament of man in the modern world. Large childlike figures are often shown walking on city streets. Street signs, roads, small cars and other markers of urban life suggest a bustling metropolis. Yet despite being surrounded by this chaotic setting, the figures are monumental in size, towering over the man-made elements of their surroundings. They are also seemingly elemental to their environment, informing its existence. By rendering his subjects as such, the artist suggests the importance of man over the city—that no matter how drastic the changes to our urban landscape are, the essence of man shall survive. His figures thus become immortal beings. Safi’s creative insights are far reaching in their scope and highly relevant to today’s global society.

Born in Kamishli, Syria in 1976, Yasser Safi studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts Damascus and later pursued a Master’s degree in graphic arts. Since graduating in 1999, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Arab world. An award winning artist, he has received prestigious honours such as the first prize for engraving in the Damascus Youth Salon and second place in print making at the Latakia biennale. Safi made his first appearance with Ayyam Gallery in its ‘Shabab Uprising’ exhibition in 2009. Recent group exhibitions for the artist include the Beirut Art Fair (2011), while selected solo exhibitions include those at Kozah Gallery, Damascus (2010) and the Portrait Fine Art Gallery, Cairo (2007). 

The sculptures, installations, and photographs of Iranian artist Farzad Kohan seek to address issues of migration and identity, surpassing the constructed boundaries of social divisions. As a manifestation of his desire to articulate the inner workings of such culture-defining phenomena, Kohan frequently utilises found materials as diverse as wood, coffee, milk, motor oil, and sand to evoke the seemingly mundane.

The artist’s recent collage works are comprised of layered newspaper advertisements that are first mounted on canvas then painted, creating a multidimensional tactility. Beneath the surface of his mixed media works are layers of the unseen, a formal detail alluding to the psychic spaces of experiential realities. Kohan states 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. The artist’s solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai in 2013 and Seyhoun Gallery, Los Angeles in 2006. His 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). 

A pioneer in the expression of Arab heritage in Arab modern art, Adham Ismail was also one of the first artists to break free from the tradition of overt realism in painting, utilising areas of flat color to detail fluid forms while drawing inspiration from Arabic calligraphy. Ismail is credited with having created the first modern artwork in Syria, the 1951 masterwork The Porter. Despite the astonishing fact that his professional artistic career only lasted a decade before his abrupt death at the age of forty, Ismail’s influence lived on in the work of his colleagues, who recognised his great contributions to local aesthetics.

Born in Antioch in 1922, at the age of sixteen Adham Ismail was already an accomplished artist. Migrating into Greater Syria after the annexation of the country’s northwestern cities left his birthplace under Turkish rule, Ismail later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome from 1952-1956 as part of a cultural exchange program that was initiated between the Italian and Syrian governments. After working for a brief time as an art instructor in Syria upon his return, he moved to Cairo where he was a consultant to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and subsequently taught fresco painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus when he resettled in Syria. His work can be found in the National Museum of Damascus and the Syrian Ministry of Culture. 

Safwan Dahoul explores the corporeal and psychological effects of alienation, solitude, and longing that punctuate the human experience at various stages in life. Partly autobiographical, his works utilise the formal properties of painting—composition, palette, and brushwork—to recreate the subconscious sense of enclosure that surfaces during times of crisis, whether in death, estrangement, or political conflict. Dahoul’s recurring female protagonist facilitates this visceral encounter through her contorted body, often-vacant eyes, and minimal yet monumental physicality. Frequently depicted in the confinement of non-descript settings, she is invariably defined by architectural details and the placement of interior accents such as a table and chair, deepening the state of her disaffection, as even the familiar becomes a site of distress.

Born in 1961 in Hama, Syria, Safwan Dahoul lives and works in Dubai. Dahoul attended the Suheil Al Ahdab Center of Plastic Arts and the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus. In 1987 he received a scholarship to study abroad from the Ministry of Higher Education and relocated to Belgium, achieving his Doctorate from the Higher Institute of Plastic Arts in Mons in 1997.

His work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; The Samawi Collection, Dubai; The Farjam Collection, Dubai; and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Kuwait. Dahoul has participated in recent solo and group exhibitions at Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2014, 2011); Ayyam Gallery London (2013); Edge of Arabia, London (2013); Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi (2013); and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012). 

A prominent Egyptian modernist, Samir Rafi was widely known for combining international trends with traces of Pharaonic art in compositions that poignantly depicted modern day Egypt. Rafi was among a number of pioneers who chose to investigate 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 earth shattering, reflecting metaphysical underpinnings. The manner in which he depicted his subjects is also striking, as they exude a certain foreboding and their melancholic dispositions seem to point to an almost apprehensive outlook towards Egypt’s future.

Born in Cairo, Samir Rafi (1926-2003) obtained a Bachelor’s degree from the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, where he focused on the decorative arts, and later went on to complete a PhD in art history from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1953. In Europe he met several leading figures of European Modernism, including Picasso, Giacometti, and Fernand Leger. Returning to Egypt amidst the fervour of Pan-Arabism, he exhibited extensively in Cairo and worked alongside the Contemporary Art Group, which he co-founded in 1964. After teaching decorative arts at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, he moved to Algeria, where he taught art history. Rafi resided in Paris during the final years of his life. His works are housed in major institutions in Egypt, and in Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Barjeel Art Foundation. 

Born in Latakia, Syria in 1941, Leila Nseir graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1963. Beginning her career during the height of Syrian modernism, Nseir developed a focus in her painting that is akin to the work of her colleague and friend the late Louay Kayyali, whose subject matter explored the fragility of the human condition and the experiences of the disenfranchised. Although exploring similar themes, Nseir’s focus on female subjects, including several provocative self-portraits, added missing components: the question of gender norms and the status of women in modern Arab society.

Finding artistic inspiration in the region’s ancient civilizations early on, Nseir often employed mythology as allegory for reality, delving into realism, expressionism then surrealism, and later utilised abstraction, all while experimenting with various mediums and techniques. Today, her paintings have traces of these different periods of her oeuvre, indicating the path of a seasoned artist who has dared to frequently embark on new creative paths.

Possessing an extensive exhibition history, Nseir has participated in numerous artistic events throughout the world. A leading painter of her generation, she was honoured by the Ministry of Culture for her contributions to local art in both 1968 and 1999. Nseir’s work can be found in the National Museum of Damascus and numerous private collections throughout the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America. She has spent most of her life in her native Syria. 

Abdullah Murad has developed an exceptional painting style that some have described as 'arabesque abstraction.' Considered an innovator in the contemporary abstract school of Syrian art, Murad has exhibited his spontaneous compositions for over thirty years. A consummate colourist whose compositions emanate with liberated forms, he creates an overwhelming sense of harmony through an effervescent palette that manipulates light and dark contrasts, reflecting an organic approach to abstraction. Shapes are created with brushstrokes ranging from restrained markings to vigorous lines that have been unleashed with explosive force.

Demonstrating a level of experimentalism that has distinguished his oeuvre, he also employs other techniques, including collage. Textures are built up so that the surface of the canvas seemingly leaps out at the viewer, while earthen hues effortlessly meet warm and cool colours. For the artist, the inspiration for his paintings cannot be located in a single moment or object. Forever evolving, his melodic compositions are extracted from the depths of the subconscious.

Born in Homs, Syria in 1944, Abdullah Murad graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus in 1970. Since then, he has exhibited through out the Middle East at venues such as Atassi gallery in Damascus, the Sharjah Biennial, and Doha’s Al Markhiya gallery. A solo exhibition at Ayyam Gallery Damascus in 2007 drew viewers from all over the region and was accompanied by a monograph covering the expanse of his oeuvre. His works are housed in the National Museum of Damascus and the Syrian Ministry of Culture, in addition to private collections around the world. 

Beginning his career at the end of Syria’s modernist period, Asaad Arabi’s paintings span decades of art and include numerous styles. Although Arabi began by depicting the streets of Old Damascus with an acute sense of realism, this quickly gave way to figurative portrayals that relied heavily on elements of Cubism and abstraction. From a method of painting that delved into the realm of geometric abstraction to the vibrant form of Expressionism that characterises his canvases today, Arabi’s work has successfully traversed multiple international developments in art.

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. Of the generation of Syrian artists who came of age during the Arab Renaissance or Nahda of the 1960s, Arabi continues to explore the region’s social taboos through Expressionist works. Selected solo exhibitions for the artist 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, the Barcelona Contemporary Museum of Art, The National Museum, New Delhi, and South Korea’s Museum in Seoul. 

Ammar Al Beik’s artistic career stems from unconventional roots. Abandoning his pursuit of a degree in business administration from the University of Damascus, he began experimenting with photography while working at a camera repair shop in the heart of the Syrian capital. Receiving rigorous training through this inadvertent apprenticeship, he began to work in photography and inevitably turned to filmmaking. Two decades into his artistic practice, Al Beik continues to alternate between photography and film, and recently added installation to his repertoire, effortlessly moving between media with an acute sense of capturing narrative structures through subtle nuance. As a result of his great artistic range and background, Al Beik’s photographs possess a cinematic quality that can only be found in the portfolio of a seasoned image-maker; forever embracing experimentation, he works with an assortment of techniques. Often materialising in the form of large ultra chrome prints, his photographs delve into the art of visual storytelling, as he captures his subjects with careful scrutiny and heightened sensitivity.

Born in Damascus in 1972, Ammar Al Beik lives and works in Dubai. He has exhibited his photographs since the mid 1990s, when he simultaneously began a career in filmmaking that has received critical acclaim and a number of distinctions from juries across the globe. Internationally renowned for his films, he has participated in festivals worldwide, including the Sao Paulo International Film Festival; Edinburgh Documentary Film Festival; Berlin International Film Festival; and Locarno International Film Festival. In 2006 he was the first Syrian filmmaker to receive the award for best documentary at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2011, he returned to the prestigious festival to present The Sun’s Incubator, a work exploring the domestic effects of the Arab Spring. Al Beik’s solo and group exhibitions of photography include Fotofest, Houston (2014); Los Angeles County Museum (2013); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2013); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2011, 2010, 2008); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2010). Al Beik's artworks are held in private and public institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 

Halim Al Karim’s works reflect his first-hand experience of the first Gulf War and the changing mentality of urban society. Working with the perspective that the pursuit of self-discovery can be obtained despite suffering, Al Karim’s harrowing experience of the war compelled him to excavate his own beliefs by examining the traditions, philosophies, and symbols of his ancient ancestors, including the Sumerians, all of which inform his present work. Using out-of-focus expressionistic images to communicate his experience of war, Al Karim explores the unclear political future of his native Iraq and the confusion that currently mars everyday life. The Hidden series reflects the artist’s observations that resulted from living through turbulent periods in his homeland. By creating provocative imagery, Al Karim aims to raise awareness of not only the political and economic instability and brutality faced by citizens of war-torn countries but also the unshakable psychological impact that such violent conflicts produce.

Born in Najaf, Iraq in 1963, Halim Al Karim currently lives and works between Denver, Colorado and Dubai. Al Karim graduated from the Baghdad Academy of Fine Arts in 1988 and the Gerrit Reitveld Academie in 2000. Exhibiting since 1992, Al Karim has held numerous solo and group exhibitions globally, exhibiting most recently at Art Basel, Art Brussels and Art Dubai, all in 2014. His solo and group exhibitions include Art13, London (2013); Artspace, London (2013); Galerie Imane Farès, Paris (2013); Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong (2013); Galeri Merkur, Istanbul (2012); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); and XVA Gallery, Dubai (2012).

Al Karim was nominated for the 2010 Sovereign Art Prize and was the recipient of the jury prize at the International Cairo Biennale, Egypt. In 2011, he was featured in the Iraqi Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, the first Iraqi Pavilion to be erected in thirty-six years. His works are housed in the collections of museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, Doha; Saatchi Gallery, London; Darat Al Funun, Amman; L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris and the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. 

As one of the Arab world’s prominent photojournalists, Ammar Abd Rabbo’s work has been published in leading and widely circulated publications, from Time Magazine to Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and Asharq Al Awsat, where he signed more than sixty magazine covers. Spanning a twenty-year career, Rabbo’s portfolio includes war coverage in Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya, portraits of heads of states, world-renowned celebrities such as Michael Jackson, as well as high profile events such as the Cannes Film Festival and Paris Fashion Week.

Born in Damascus in 1966, Rabbo lived in Libya and Lebanon before moving to France in 1978 after the intensification of the Lebanese Civil War. Prior to joining Sipa press agency in 1992, he studied political science at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques. He later left Sipa to create Balkis photo agency, which is now syndicated by Abaca Press. 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: pregnancy. Follow the Leader, Rabbo’s second solo show held in Dubai, focused on the spontaneity of scenes capturing world leaders, providing a surprising glimpse into the banal side of politics. 

Employing a variety of approaches, Mohammad Badr has experimented with everything from fashion photography to site-specific documentary practices. The artist’s interest in capturing a range of imagery has frequently led him to focus on often-overlooked facets of everyday life in the Middle East with acute perception. In Prayers of Light, the entrance of a private residence is photographed from an interior vantage point as light filters through its glass doors and ornate shadows fall across the floor, signaling the quiet of a home that is emptied of a human presence yet still comes alive.

Born in Lebanon in 1981, Mohamad Badr lives and works in Dubai. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2011 Shabab Ayyam Photography competition, and the Live Achrafieh Honorary Award (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. In 2012 his solo exhibition at Ayyam Gallery Beirut, The Power of... received wide acclaim for its provocative subject matter. 

Fascination with the architectural is evident in Iranian artist Majid Koorang Beheshti’s works. In the artist’s 2005 series, Cubic Paths the crispness of monochrome constructions, angular or often curved and offset with bold ebony-shadowed areas and clean lines in repeated sequences, create foreign landscapes reminiscent of Bauhaus and, at times, Surrealist sensibilities. Depicted structures are devoid of their original purpose, allowing the form and line of each segment to stand out and create a new meaning for the viewer. This series won the award for Best Collection in Creative Photography at the tenth Biennale of Iranian Photography in 2006.

The artist’s later works show angular rooftops, perforated tunnels and geometric skeletons of edifices that frame the interior scene of each photograph. With direct references to an armed military presence, the harsh environment serves to emphasise the despair, chaos, destruction, and violence Iran has witnessed throughout its modern period.

Born in 1967 in Isfahan, Iran, Majid Koorang Beheshti received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from Tehran’s Azad University. He has shown in solo exhibitions throughout Iran since 1998 and at Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai in 2012. Beheshti has participated in group exhibitions in Iran, the United States, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany since 2004, most notably with the exhibition Persian Visions, Contemporary Photography from Iran that toured the United States in 1999. 

Throughout his career as a photographer, Iranian artist Alireza Fani has explored myriad themes, notably through signs and symbols that adopt surrealist gestures. In his early works, for example, the use of a single letter and its implied meaning in various contexts speaks of a reality beneath the surface of the immediate. In his works from 2008 to 2010, animal bones and fish appear as individual and multiple indexes, superimposed onto nondescript scenes, and strategically placed upon or alongside the bodies of various male and female figures.

In recent work, Fani is influenced by the ideas and writings of revered Iranian intellectual and translator, Shahrokh Meskoob. Drawing on historical referents from Meskoob’s works, Alireza states, ’The heroic figure is not history as it occurred, he is more articulate than an account of wars and massacres, revealing the convictions and beliefs of a nation that has long held such a vision.’ Known for social commentary that also injects humor and satire into the everyday, Fani’s 2012 photographic series I’m the One Who... introduces a rather grotesque caricature of man: a figure wears horns on his head, his eccentric glories belonging to a remote and ambiguous past, while his ‘convictions’ serve only as a cover for the absurdity of man’s quotidian life.

Alireza Fani was born in 1975 in Tehran, Iran. He received a Diploma in Graphic Design from Chamran Technical High School of Gorgan, and in 1994 entered Azad University of Art and Architecture to further his studies in Graphic Design. He has worked as a graphic designer, art director, and freelance photographer since 1997, developing a focus in fine art photography since 2007. Exhibiting since 2004, Fani has participated in various solo and group exhibitions in Iran. Internationally, he has participated in exhibitions in China, Croatia, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and India. Recent group exhibitions include those at Silk Road Art Gallery, Tehran (2014); Mah Art Gallery, Tehran (2014) and 1x1 Gallery, Delhi (2013). Recent solo exhibitions include those at Silk Road Art Gallery, Tehran (2012) and Khak Gallery, Iran (2012). In September 2014, Fani will be participating in Photo Shanghai. 

Inspired by the ‘kitsch pop Surrealism’ of American photographer, David LaChapelle, and the fashion photography of Herb Ritts, photographer Nour El Khazen views photography as a way of ‘creating imaginary scenarios that shock.’ The featured lot depicts a pairing of the violent with the erotic, suggesting a build up of energy as well as an impending release. El Khazen cleverly builds on contrasts in this work, the ‘V’ of a woman’s cleavage in the lower half of the work mirrors the ‘V’ created by the woman’s upward pointing chin. In the top half of the work our gaze is directed upwards and out of the frame of the photograph, imploring us to imagine the moment after the photograph. Whereas looking below, the rush of the pent-up contained within the woman is evident, just as an explosion is contained within the grenade in her hand, ready for take off.

Proprietor of a photography studio in Beirut, Nour El Khazen has a diverse practice ranging from fine art photography to commercial editorial projects. She received a degree in Audio and Visual Arts at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), Beirut, and has studied graphic design in Los Angeles, painting at the Art Student League in New York, fashion communication at the Instituto di Design, Milan and photography at Concordia University, Montreal. 

Renowned architect and visual artist Kamran Diba’s work was initially inspired by the rich cultural legacy of his Persian heritage. Recently, however, Diba’s style has evolved as he draws influence from his current surroundings. The inspiration for his early works arose from ancient Persian manuscripts as he utilised pieces of Persian carpets in contemporary collages. Similarly, he later updated traditional calligraphy as abstract forms, creating modern compositions. With a background in architecture, Diba’s work varies from installation to audio to sculpture and photography. His latest series is a response to globalisation and current affairs, addressing issues of communication at an international level. In such works, he employs colourful collages to illustrate the news as a series of signs with striking visual effect and overcomes the limitations of language and nationality by recreating news media as non-linear narratives and converting information into colour.

Born in Tehran in 1937, Kamran Diba currently lives and works in Paris. A professional architect, Diba is most famous for designing the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 1977. Diba studied Architecture and Sociology at Howard University in Washington DC and graduated in 1964. He has participated in several solo and group exhibitions since graduation, most recently at Etemad Gallery, Dubai (2012); Mah Gallery, Tehran (2010); Ave Gallery, Dubai (2008); and XVA Gallery, Dubai (2008). 

Hamid Sahihi’s early work is heavily influenced by Surrealism and an interest in dreams. His recent works reflect a shift into assemblage and dimensions of the sculptural, almost as if bringing his hallucinatory juxtapositions to life. The Bulimia series (2012) presents the disease of over consumption and purging of food to highlight present problems in media. With multiple news outlets constantly feeding consumers their stories the general public becomes over saturated, the truth in media can often be buried or hidden, and news, like food, is ultimately purged.

Born in 1980 in Tehran, Hamid Sahihi received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Tehran University in 2003, and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Art University in Tehran in 2005. Select exhibitions for the artist include the Museum Rietberg, Zürich (2013); The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2013); the CCA-T Center for Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, Georgia (2013); the Jill George Gallery, London (2010); and the Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau, Switzerland (2009). Sahihi was featured in the second, fifth and sixth editions of the Tehran Contemporary Painting Biennale. He has also enjoyed success as a filmmaker; having studied with renowned filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami at one point, the artist has created twenty short films and video animations, and one feature film in the last decade. 

Ahmed Al Bahrani’s sculptures reflect a minimalist approach that focuses on the clarity and simplicity of abstract forms as he fashions a sense of movement and fluidity from an otherwise unyielding material. The curvature of his twisted metallic bodies suggests a constant state of transformation, with light bouncing off suspended angles as they turn and sway to an invisible rhythm. Positive and negative spaces are determined through sleek openings that come at the right point, allowing for moments of quiet that are needed amidst such intensity. These three dimensional works seem to conjure up a distant past. Constantly evolving his artistic approach, he also works in different mediums, creating equally compelling paintings, mono prints, and reliefs.

Born in Babylon in 1965, Ahmed Al Bahrani lives between Sweden and Qatar. A graduate of the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad in 1988, he later taught at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1992 to 1994. Relocating to Qatar in 1998, he co-founded Mimar Gallery with architect Hazem Abu Naba’a and has exhibited regularly throughout the Arab world since then. In recent years, he has earned a significant following in the Gulf art scene, where he has been featured in some of the region’s most prominent commercial art spaces, such as Art Sawa Gallery in Dubai and Albareh Art Gallery in Bahrain. A respected sculptor, he has been commissioned for a number of public works. 

Boasting a career that began in 1988, Syrian artist Fadi Yazigi has employed various techniques and mediums in his work, from using newspapers as canvases to creating bronze sculptures and ceramic reliefs. Disproportionately large heads sit on top of bodies that are representational but not exactly true to life. These rotund smiling figures are a key feature of Yazigi’s work in all mediums. The featured lot employs loaves of bread upon which Yazigi’s figures appear as whimsical participants in a pictographic script of the artist’s making. This piece was made in response to the children of Gaza being shelled with white phosphorus. When the artist saw images of children who had been burnt alive, he remarked on his website, it looked as if they had been ‘fired in the oven, their skin the same colour as bread.’ Compelled to address this atrocity, Yazigi used his signature figures, the breads of varying size serving as powerful comment and constant reminder of the tragic fate of the Gazan people who have little access to food supplies, but continue to live under siege.

Born in Latakia, Syria in 1966, Fadi Yazigi studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus. Since graduating in 1988, Yazigi has built a celebrated oeuvre, not only in medium but also in subject matter, direction and mood. In addition to participating in numerous exhibitions and art fairs in the Middle East, Europe and the US, attracting collectors from all over the world, Yazigi’s works have been featured in auctions at Christies’s and Sotheby’s. Recent group exhibitions for the artist include BIEL, Beirut (2013) and Art Dubai (2012). Recent solo exhibitions include, Dar Al Fanun, Kuwait (2014) and Q Gallery, Beirut. 

Of his work, artist Ramin Shirdel states, 'an image, a poem, a lyric, a landscape or a dialogue' in everyday life can spark the imagination. Such inspirations, combined with formal considerations of space, merge into an individualised style that takes into account the simultaneity of lived experiences that the artist renders through his mixed media art works. Working in assemblage creates a sense of dimensionality that alludes to built forms while allowing signifiers of language to come alive as tangible signs. The featured lot, Haq is a brand new commission that shows a full maturation of the artist’s interest in the three-dimensional, as it merges the exploration of a philosophical concept (truth) with an embodiment of the physical.

Born in Tehran in 1981, the artist continues to live and work in the Iranian capital. Shirdel received a Master of Architecture from Tehran University of Art and is an award-winning architect who has designed local and international projects. Although Shirdel chose architecture as his vocation, art, specifically painting, has been with him since childhood. Shirdel has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2014); Elahe Gallery, Tehran (2011); the sixth Biennale of Sculpture at Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran (2011); and the Haft Negah Group Exhibition at Niavaran Cultural Center (2012). His works are housed in private collections throughout the Middle East and the United States. 

Jordanian artist Dana Rousan marks her entrance into the art world by creating three-dimensional abstract structures made of wood that explore a series of thoughts, and are triggered by a sensory journey where each moment is a celebration for the artist. Strong contrasts that create impactful expressions are prominent in her work, revealing a mysterious world underneath the multi-layered compositions, portraying complexity, depth, and infinite possibilities of connecting with life.

Born in Amman, Jordan, Dana Rousan lives and works in Sharjah, UAE. She graduated from L’Ecole des Beaux- Arts de Besancon, France in 1996, going on to pursue a successful career in graphic design, advertising, and television, in both France and Jordan. She has won awards for her work in the fields mentioned above. In 2014, she exhibited in a double-feature show at the Zara Gallery, Amman. 

Syria’s foremost sculptor, and longtime promoter of Syrian art and culture, Mustafa Ali began sculpting as early as age fifteen. Known for elegant, monumental sculptures that pierce the consciousness and underscore the fragility of mankind, in Ali’s work the influence of one of his greatest inspirations, Swiss sculptor, Alberto Giacometti is evident. Ali’s first exhibition of bronze sculptures was held in 1988, earning him accolades. ‘I like the way [bronze] reflects the light and the way it changes colour,’ Ali once remarked in conversation with Lara Dunston, referring to the ‘noble’ material. In the years 1992-1993, Ali began experimenting with wood, stating that wood added a warmth and humanity to the metal alloy.

Mustafa Ali was born in Latakia in 1956. After training in sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, he continued his studies at the Fine Arts Academy in Carrara, Italy, graduating in 1996. Having exhibited extensively on the international art circuit since 1979, he participated in a number of high-profile events such as Art Dubai (2011); the international Symposium for Sculptors in Valencia, Spain (2001); the Latakia Sculpture Biennial (where he was awarded the Golden Prize) (1997); the Sharjah Biennial (1995) and the Alexandria Biennial, Egypt (1994).

Ali’s work has been widely collected in the Arab world for nearly three decades and is housed in private and public collections, including a number of official institutions in Syria such as the National Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Damascus, in addition to the Jordan National Gallery in Amman, the Sharjah Museum of Art and the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. Many of Ali’s bronze and wood sculptures can also be found in public spaces, such as ‘The Gate of Syria,’ which is on display in the Mediterranean Olympiad in Pari, Italy, and ‘The Tower of Memory,’ which stands at the Damascus International Fairground. 

Mehdi Nabavi’s recent works, dated 2013, and those from the Exquisite Pits series (2012) take up the imagery, and instruments of war head on, these include missiles and tanks, which the artist models after real examples, transforming their appearance and purpose when placing them upon the art stage. The most noticeable feature of Nabavi’s three-dimensional sculptures is the use of coloured and ornate mirror work applied in geometric formations upon the surface of the art works. Ornate mirror work which is often found as inlay inside domes of mosques is understood as a symbol of light and of the divine, the cut mirrors acting as bridges that bring the celestial into the realm of the physical. With his artistic technique, Nabavi creates an ambiguous surface: do his mosaics attempt to usher in the holy, the positive and the peaceful into a scene otherwise filled with violence and atrocity? Or, do such visual references conflate war and reflect religion and the history of their intermingling? Simultaneously, his works ask us to reflect upon what instruments of war mean, and what they do in the contemporary age.

Born in Iran in 1978 Mehdi Nabavi has held recent solo exhibitions at Mah Gallery (2012) and Azad Gallery, Tehran (2012). He exhibited in the Fourth Biennale of Contemporary Painting in Iran in 1997. 

Having worked with imagery that relates directly to Dubai, and to the greater UAE, photographer Lamya Gargash has been a trailblazer in chronicling contemporary Emirati society as it undergoes dramatic transformation. In her past work, Gargash considers the psychic impact of absence and emptiness in the context of rapid development in photographs of recently abandoned structures in Dubai; while her early work explores the poetics of space, and the psychology of the Muslim veil. Her 2014 work combines her interests in the body, and in symbols of national identity, as the featured lot depicts a storefront mannequin draped in a national flag. Gargash once again questions the role of women, and the position of a national or local culture in the face of rampant urbanisation and its related consumerism.

Lamya Gargash graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2004 then pursued a Masters degree in Arts in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins, London in 2007. Gargash has held solo exhibitions in Italy and UAE and has participated in various group exhibitions in Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Japan, and France as well as within the UAE. In 2009, she participated in the 53rd Venice Biennale as the featured artist of the UAE's first ever national pavilion, and in the 9th Sharjah Biennal. In 2014, she participated in the 15th International FotoFest Biennial in Houston. 

A leading contemporary Syrian painter, Saad Yagan is widely known for chronicling the modern day experiences of Aleppo residents and their instinctive attachment to the centuries-old city. Yagan’s atmospheric paintings have followed two distinct tracts, and can be divided between scenes derived from ancient mythology and literature, such as his Gilgamesh and Arabian Nights series, and compositions exploring the morose café culture that hosts Syria’s recluses, alienated philosophers, and an assortment of other downtrodden clientele. Both narrative threads feature stylised figures whose elongated faces appear worn by time, adopting the lines and brushwork of their settings. Yet their muscular bodies, which appear to be patterned after the perception of hallowed bodies found in religious icons, are rendered with an aestheticised elegance.

Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1944, Saad Yagan began painting at age thirteen. In 1964 he graduated from the Plastic Arts Centre of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Aleppo and held his first solo exhibition at the city’s National Museum five years later. To date, he has exhibited in over one hundred exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition to his painting, he has served as a commentator for Syrian television, broadcasting a series of documentaries on art. Yagan has also lectured extensively in local universities. His works are housed in the National Museum of Damascus and the Syrian Ministry of Culture. The artist’s recent solo and group exhibitions have been held at Mark Hachem Gallery, Beirut (2014); Art House, Damascus (2011, 2009, 2008); Katzen Center for the Arts, Washington DC (2007); and Art Form Gallery, Montreal (2007). 

A leading figure in contemporary Syrian art, Thaier Helal’s large mixed media works are considered at the forefront of contemporary abstraction in the Middle East. Drawing inspiration from the physical and sensory aspects of the world around him, Helal explores the dynamism of space as it is reshaped by the ebb and flow of society and culture. His canvases communicate movement and energy through explosions of colour, the meticulous division of the picture plane, and repeated layering of the surface. Although employing the leitmotifs of contemporary painting, the artist’s deliberate approach is reminiscent of the formalism of Islamic art, which relies on units as part of a larger whole to communicate a sense of wonder when alluding to the sublime.

The featured lot is from Helal’s upcoming object based series, Made in Syria that utilises images of Syrian Army personnel, of bombs being dropped and of ammunitions trucks, the images taken from news media isolate the mechanisms of warfare presenting them in stark contrast to the background of tambour drums upon which they are placed. In this rendering the artist confronts the abject reality that currently besieges Syrians while pointing to the increased militarisation of global society.

Born in Syria in 1967, Thaier Helal graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus before relocating to Sharjah in the 1990s, where he currently lives and works. 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 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). In addition to his breakthroughs in abstraction, Helal has contributed to the development of regional art as a longtime faculty member of the University of Sharjah, Fine Arts College.

Selected solo exhibitions for the artist include Ayyam Gallery, Dubai, 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). His selected group exhibitions include Art Paris Abu Dhabi (2008); Iran Contemporary Painting Biennial, Tehran (2005); Imagining the Book International Biennale, Alexandria (2005); and the Sharjah Biennial (1997, 1995). 

In a practice spanning more than four decades, Fouad Elkoury’s work has come to be associated with documentary photography through lands that have experienced strife – with the landscape and architecture pockmarked with human conflict. The Lost Empire explores a similar topography of war, it is a photographic journey through abandoned soviet military bases. Elkoury visited dozens of military bases in Poland, Hungary, Estonia and East Germany between 2010 and 2011. Most were aviation fields; others served separate purposes. Despite being told there was nothing to photograph there, Elkoury found the abandoned desolation captivating. Deserted and invaded by nature, a force more primal than weapons of war, the bases have become unserviceable areas of land. Their utter silence and emptiness left Elkoury the only protagonist in the plot, searching for abandoned stories, his only ally was light, without which nothing could be seen.

Fouad Elkoury was born in Paris in 1952, and created the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation in 1997. His work, On Love and War, a series of journal entries spanning the duration of Israel’s onslaught onto Lebanon in August 2006 was shown at Lebanon’s First National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Elkoury’s selected solo exhibitions include Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris; Beirut Art Center, Beirut; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the 9th Gwangju, 52nd Venice and 7th Sharjah Biennials. Elkoury’s works are part of permanent collections at Centre Pompidou Metz in Paris, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris and Solidere in Beirut. 

Through her unconventional hand-painted photographs, Kezban Arca Batibeki explores themes related to the empowerment of women as well as to their representation within popular culture. In her works, numerous faceless women appear as suspended erotic objects, nearly nude with their limbs intertwined. Often referencing historical painting, in which battles are the exclusive domain of men, Batibeki takes aim at the gendered representations that appear in a range of imagery from the Fine Arts to mass media and have served as socialising agents of Western culture.

Born in Istanbul in 1956, Kezban Arca Batibeki lives and works in Istanbul. Batibeki graduated from the Graphic Arts Department of the Fine Arts Faculty in Marmara University in 1980 and since then has worked as a painter, production designer, photographer, and writer. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, recent exhibitions include Leila Heller Gallery, New York (2014, 2012); INN London, London (2013); St John’s University, New York (2013); and Anima Gallery, Doha (2012). Batibeki is the recipient of the Grand Prize at the Esbank Awards (1992, 1993) and her works are held in the public collections of the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Ankara; Elgiz Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul; and Istanbul Modern Virtual Museum. 

Afshin Pirhashemi examines the complexities of life in modern day Iran through photorealist portraits that often bleed at their edges into expressionist compositions, becoming dramatic tableauxs. Pirhashemi is fascinated by the role of women in contemporary Iranian society and their relationships to the world around them. Tapping into the psychosocial dimensions of contemporary Iran, Pirhashemi explores manifestations of power as they appear or are negotiated through gendered bodies and spaces.

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). 

Dominated by vivacious childlike figures in various scenarios, Mohannad Orabi’s previous paintings reflect his interest in the spontaneity of process and the liberation of form that emerges when art is created intuitively without fixed directives. Many of these mixed media canvases were painted as self-portraits, revealing the artist’s fascination with the evolution of consciousness in childhood and the wonder and whimsy of the formative years that first shape our comprehension of the world.

With the start of the Syrian uprising and the conflict that followed, Orabi adopted an increasingly realist approach to portraiture, drawing inspiration from the various forms of media that are currently forging a visual repository of the war. Martyr posters, facebook profile pictures, and other types of filtered or composed imagery serve as source material for portraits of Syrians under siege, displaced, and in exile, recording a side of the conflict that lies beyond its ideological divisions and political talking points. While the artist retains an interest in the socialisation processes of childhood, his own experiences of now living outside the country have led him to consider the ways in which visual culture, social media, and digital communication have become substitutes for what was once tangible.

Born in Damascus in 1977, Mohannad Orabi currently lives and works in Dubai. 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). Recent group exhibitions for the artist include Ayyam Gallery London, Ayyam Gallery Beirut, Ayyam Gallery DIFC and Al Quoz, Dubai, all held in 2014. 

Omar Abdel Zaher’s work finds inspiration in stories from Egyptian folklore, while also looking to the daily lives of characters from the Egyptian countryside. In his idyllic compositions, figures are often depicted in various states of courtship, or in scenes of celebration such as at the occasion of a wedding, in addition to depictions of quotidian tasks such as the fetching of water from a well. The featured lot that depicts a man in repose references Pharaonic portraiture, but the presence of a radio, and a tumbler of tea in the scene situate both the subject and the viewer into current time.

Born in Cairo in 1966, Omar Abdel Zaher currently lives and works in the city. He graduated from the Fine Arts Graphic Department at Menia University in 1991, subsequently completing a Masters degree in Fine Arts in Graphic Design, and a PhD in Fine Art that focused on Egyptian and Iraqi art. Zaher is a member of the Fine Artists’ Association and of the Cairo Atelier. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in Egypt and internationally. Recent international group exhibitions include an exhibition of Egyptian art in Sarajevo (2002); an exhibition of Contemporary Egyptian Art in Athens (2004); the Third International Exhibition in Bolivia (1995) and The Fifth Cairo International Biennale (1994). Zaher’s work is held in the collections of the Egyptian Modern Art Museum, Cairo and the Cultural Development Fund, Egypt. 

Mounzer Kamnakache works in sculpture and pastels, creating ethereal works that are at once existential and mythological. Often revolving around a red haired heroine, the narratives of Kamnakache’s pastels seem to float above everyday realities. The artist’s mythical universe is dominated by creation stories and buttery- fleshed women whose robust forms recall those found in the works of Peter Paul Rubens or Pierre Auguste Renoir with a sensuality that speaks of an overt femininity, one reminiscent of ancient fertility goddesses. The artist’s airy compositions possess a sense of tranquility and meditation, as though his subjects are in a dream-like state. Their colossal bodies seem to glide through the clouds in search of immortality, drawing the viewer in with their near-perfect forms and the artist’s elegant markings and demonstrated sensitivity.

Although his bronze works also reflect explorations of the sublime and that which is unseen, they demonstrate a greater range of aesthetic conclusions. At times his sculptures can appear inspired by Picasso’s cubist forms, in other instances the viewer might recall the round contours and sharp features of Kouros figures, which epitomised idealised youth and beauty, ideals that are not far from those projected by Kamnakache’s own protagonists.

Born in 1935, Mounzer Kamnakache graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1968, he went on to pursue graduate studies in Paris, where he spent nearly two decades. Returning to his country of origin in the 1990s, he began teaching at his alma mater, and currently resides in Syria. His works have been shown in prominent galleries in the Middle East and Europe. 

Employing a multi-process method of working, Reza Lavasani’s work is based on drawings that are then turned into paintings or large-scale sculptures, which, due to their apparent solidity, at first appear to have been fashioned of metal or stone. A closer examination of the artist’s interests reveals a commitment to recovery, restoration, and reclamation, as well as an overarching vision that considers harmony and ecology, revealing his motivation for creating sculptures from pre-used paper.

Lavasani has the gift of combining elements as synergistic expressions from sources as diverse as religion, philosophy, mythology, Sufi thought, the poetry of Hafiz and Rumi as well as national history. Winged horses and the golden-eagles of Damavand from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) appear as sculptural manifestations, whereas evident in the artist’s two-dimensional works are motifs from Persian miniature painting and manuscript illumination, with the addition of fable-like elements such as the rendering of wind, waves, and animals in the paintings. Animal forms in metallic purple are captured mid-stride, set against a yellow or gold flecked background, and in other works angels are seen in supplication to fabled animals.

Born in 1962 in Tehran, Reza Lavasani received a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from the University of Tehran. Lavasani has exhibited widely in Iran and has participated in various international group exhibitions and art fairs including in Japan and Italy. 

Painter Youssef Dweik uses 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. The elimination of traditional perspective that marks his compositions is indicative of a school of Palestinian art that emerged most profoundly in the 1990s with a collective of artists identified as the New Visions Group. Boycotting Israeli art supplies in protest of the occupation of Palestine, they turned to materials found in nature. The works that were created during this time often reject illusionism as a means of anchoring figures and objects, opting instead for flattened spaces divided into units or distinct sections. Referencing the compartments found in the traditional arts of Palestine, be it in the complex designs of embroidery or inlaid mother-of-pearl crafts, such definition of compositional space also provided a fluid narrative structure. In his mixed media work, Dweik achieves a balance between telling the complicated story of Palestine and the desire to reach high levels of formalism.

Youssef Dweik was born in Jerusalem in 1963 and presently resides in the UAE. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Jordan’s Al-Yarmouk University in 1985. He is a member of UNESCO’s Association of International Artists, the Palestinian Artists League, and the United Arab Emirates League of Artists. Dweik has exhibited his work in solo and group shows throughout the Arab world and abroad. 

Known for acrylic on canvas paintings that radiate with dramatic areas of colour, Yasser Hammoud experiments with properties of light, encouraging the subconscious to expand into a vastness that lies amidst blackened areas upon which it can later rest its weary imagination. Working with a limited palette that is dominated by saturated tones and accentuated with areas of dark hues, Hammoud creates atmospheric abstractions that allude to other worldly dimensions, as a sublime implication of his gestural brushwork engulfs the viewer, suspending the mind into a realm that is free of earthly concerns.

Born in Tartous in 1963, painter Yasser Hammoud received a degree in Interior Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Damascus in 1987. In 2009, Hammoud represented Syria at the 53rd Venice Biennale. Before being bestowed with this honour, he exhibited in various group exhibitions of Syrian art including the highly acclaimed Paris-Damascus (2008), which was hosted by the Institut du Monde Arabe, and Contemporary Syrian Art (2008), one of the first shows to be held at Doha’s Waqif Art Center. This impressive career history stands in addition to the many public commissions he received in Syria, namely the execution of large-scale murals and sculptures. 

Mohammad Bozorgi approaches calligraphy with an architectural eye that is evident in the mathematical structure and symmetry of letters, especially those comprising his Crying for Honour series. Bozorgi’s masterful command of the centuries-old tradition is the result of intensive studies in classical calligraphic forms such as divani, kufic, nastaliq, naskh, sols, Mohaggegh and broken nastaliq in order to develop distinctly stylised characters based on Arabic and Persian examples. After training with the Society of Iranian Calligraphers for over a decade, Bozorgi left to pursue more innovative calligraphic forms. Drawing from his background in engineering, he makes qualitative calculations when constructing his works, using the directives of geometry to create abstract illusions of movement and space. Building on the breakthroughs of his predecessors, such as those who led the Saqqakhaneh school of Iranian painters in the 1960s, Bozorgi is recognised as a leading figure among the 'New Generation' of contemporary calligraphers.

Born in Tehran in 1978, Mohammad 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. His recent solo and group exhibitions have been held at Ayyam Gallery, Jeddah (2014); Homa Gallery, Tehran (2014); Galerie Nicolas Flamel (2013); and Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Zurich (2012). 

Ali Shirzai has been practicing calligraphic arts for the last forty years. The artist’s brightly coloured canvases pay homage to the beauty of the spiritual and the poetic in the Quran. In his works the artist melds utterances of an aestheticised nature with representations of objects and phenomena from the natural world, often pairing Quranic verses of Hamd and Al Rahman with representations of thawing ice or sandstorm patterning.

Ali Shirazi was born in 1960 in Shiraz, Iran. He has trained in calligraphy since 1974, obtaining a distinction from the Iranian Calligraphy Society. Shirazi was former Head of the Isfahan Calligraphy Society and is a member of the High Council of the Iranian Calligraphy Society, Tehran. His works are housed in various public and private collections including the Islamic Culture and Communication Organization, the Imam Ali Museum of Tehran, Tehran Quran Museum, Sharjah Art Museum, UAE, and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. 

Syrian artist Tammam Azzam creates a 'hybrid form' of painting through the application of various media, arriving at interactions between surface and form that borrow and multiply as compositions evolve. Unconventional materials such as rope, clothespins, and other found objects are employed to create depth, texture, and space, achieving a striking balance between ordinary objects and the expanse of the picture plane despite a visible tension.

Following the outbreak of violence in Syria, Azzam turned to digital media to create visual composites of the conflict that have resonated with viewers. As such, Azzam’s images have circulated through various channels of the international art world and the political sphere, drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis that now surrounds Syrians. These recent images are informed by his interest in the interventionist potential of digital media and street art as powerful and direct forms of protest that are difficult to suppress. In early 2013, Azzam made worldwide headlines when his work Freedom Graffiti went viral on social media. Enlisting one of the most iconic works of art – Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss - to protest the country's suffering, he superimposed a recognisable image of love over the walls of war-torn Damascus. Belonging to the artist’s Syrian Museum series in which he places imagery taken from masterpieces of Western art history into photographs of scenes of devastation across Syria, the work juxtaposes some of the greatest achievements of humanity with the pain it is also capable of inflicting.

Born in Damascus in 1980, Tammam Azzam lives and works in Dubai. He received his formal training from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus with a concentration in oil painting. Recently, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions at such venues as Rush Arts, New York (2014); FotoFest Biennial, Houston (2014); Ayyam Gallery London (2013); the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia (2013); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2012, 2009); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2011). 

Long considered one of the Gulf’s leading artists and a pioneer of conceptual art in the region, Faisal Samra describes himself as a nomad wandering through time. The cultural amalgam of having lived in Paris, New York, and Beirut while also traveling in Morocco and Asia has led to diverse influences in his artistic practice. Combining elements of digital photography, painting, sculpture, video, and performance, Samra probes the political fissures and social contradictions of visual culture through works that subvert historical narratives and contemporary realities. Consequently, the target of Samra’s creative machination is primarily visual culture predicated upon systems of mass media, advertisements, or political communication.

Bahraini-born Saudi national Faisal Samra graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In addition to his artistic practice, he has worked as an art and graphic design consultant for the Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris), a stage designer for Saudi television, and an instructor at the Fine Arts Department of Amman University in Jordan.

Samra has contributed to numerous seminal group shows such as Word Into Art at the British Museum (London and Dubai), Languages of the Desert: Contemporary Arab Art from the Gulf States (Abu Dhabi, Paris and Kunstmuseum, Bonn), and Traversée, (Paris, Cairo, Rabat). His work is housed in the collections of The British Museum (London), the National Museum (Mexico City), the Modern Art Museum (Cairo), and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha). He has participated in Biennials in Singapore and Cairo, and is a jury member for the Alexandria Biennale, Egypt. The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery, Jeddah (2013); Dubai (2014); HD Galerie, Casablanca (2012); Traffic Gallery, Dubai (2011); Albareh Gallery, Bahrain (2010); Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2009); XVA Gallery, Dubai (2008). His group shows include Edge of Arabia, London (2012); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); Haeinsa Temple, South Korea (2011); Maraya Art Center, Sharjah (2010); Singapore Biennial (2008); Cairo Biennial (2008). 

Youssef Abdelke is one of Syria’s leading contemporary artists. A respected engraver and master draftsman, he is a great observer of living phenomena, and while he is precise and methodical in his approach, there is also a poetic side to his work. With an extensive oeuvre that has been decades in the making, his subject matter has ranged from highly political social satire to meditative still lifes that are unassuming yet powerful. As such his work has been influential to a number of young and emerging artists in the Arab world.

Born in Kamishli in 1951, he lived in exile in Paris from the late 1970s, shortly after graduating from Damascus University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, until 2005 when he returned to Syria. In 1986 he received a diploma in Etching from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts and later went on to complete a PhD in Plastic Arts from University VIII of Paris in 1989.

A versatile artist, he has worked in different areas of graphic art, and is known for his posters, logos, and book covers in addition to his etchings and collages. Abdelke has authored over thirty children’s books and has published several texts on the history of caricature in Syria and the Arab world. He has exhibited throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe and his artworks can be found in the National Museum of Kuwait, the British Museum, the National Museum of Damascus, and many other public institutions. 

Established Syrian painter Asma Fayoumi is widely admired for her expressionist 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 more recent expressionist works that combine her signature style of layered and laboured figurative compositions, Fayoumi has remained committed to depicting the world around her with fervent imagination.

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 led 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, during this time. As such, her journey as a professional artist unfolded at one of the most crucial 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. A well-received solo show in Damascus in 1966 solidified her arrival on the local art scene, as it created a significant buzz. Since then she 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. 

Senol Yorozlu’s expressionist paintings portray anonymous figures in brooding compositions that utilise form to describe alienated conditions in the absence of delineated narrative components. Dark hues and painterly brushwork outline protagonists who are rendered in vacant spaces; as their features seem to melt into the void of their surroundings, their bodies become abstracted areas of colour.

Born in 1950 in Trabzon, Senol Yorozlu lives and works in Izmir. Yorozlu graduated with a Masters of Art from the Istanbul Fine Art Academy in 1978 and began drawing caricatures for various comic magazines shortly after. Yorozlu has widely exhibited since 1996 and has held numerous solo shows, most recently at Play Studio, Istanbul (2009); Tevfik İhtiyar Art Gallery (2007 & 2008). He is the recipient of a number of awards including an ‘Artist of the Year’ honour from the Ankara Art Institution (1985), the Grand Prize from the Istanbul Vakko Great Painting Competition (1983), and Gold Medal from the Vercelli International Caricaturist Competition, Italy (1975). 

In her whimsical paintings, Ayşegül Sağbaş explores the sexuality of women through the fictional life of her recurring heroine, Fadu. Based on real life stories she heard as a child, Sağbaş questions the taboos of Turkish culture and the secrecy and social negotiations with which women must fulfill their basic desires. By transforming female figures into the fictional infant character Fadu, she portrays Turkish women as living through the eyes of hypocrisy. Fadu reflects the inherent sexual drive in humans that despite repressive efforts cannot be curtailed. Sağbaş’ use of vibrant colours and frequent inclusion of specific objects such as fishnet stockings, high-heeled shoes, and undergarments in her paintings reveals the seemingly erotic as essentially mundane.

Born in Rize in 1976, Ayşegül Sağbaş currently works and resides in Istanbul. Sağbaş graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Samsun Ondokuz Mayis University in 2004. She has been exhibiting since 2006, when she participated in the 16th Tüyap International Istanbul Art Fair. Sağbaş’s recent solo and group exhibitions include CDA Projects, Istanbul (2009, 2011), Casa Dell’Arte, Istanbul (2008), and Akademililer Sanat Galerisi (2007). Sağbaş has participated in numerous competitions and workshops, receiving awards for her artwork, including an honourable mention and an Award of Merit at the Beyoglu Municipality Painting Contest (2007). 

When creating her abstract compositions Turkish artist Ebru Uygun utilises a method of deconstruction and reconstruction through which four canvases are torn by hand into strips then brought together as a single canvas. The result is an uneven, textured, and tactile three-dimensional collage piece from what was once a simple two-dimensional painting. In a recent article on Uygun, Timur Moon states that this unconventional practice arose from an impulse to destroy a specific work, which Uygun simply hated. Once taken apart and seeing the pieces in a different light, she began the process of reconstruction, which she felt had ‘injected it with new life.’ This methodical process leads to eye-catching compositions that seem to pulsate with energy and movement.

Born in Istanbul, in 1974, Ebru Uygun currently lives and works in the city. Uygun received her initial artistic training from Marmara University, Istanbul and continued her studies at Kingston University and Brighton University in the United Kingdom. She has held several solo and group exhibitions globally with her first solo show at the Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2011), titled ‘Lucid Dreaming.’ She has held shows at other galleries including Saatchi Gallery, London (2011); Dirimart, Istanbul (2009); Wingrow Art Gallery, Taipei (2009); and Marlborough Gallery, New York (2009). Her works have also been included in several international art fairs, including the Armory Show NY (2010), Art Dubai (2009, 2010), and Art Athina (2009). 

n Mohammad Hassan Nikbakht’s Calcium series, space and volume are rendered without the use of traditional perspective, creating a surprising sense of depth in the absence of illusionism. The artist’s abstract form is painted with soft edges and faint highlights that glow as the surface appears in gradating hues of white and green, making the depicted object appear to float within the composition. Nikbakht’s simple, isolated subject offers a meditative point of departure as the eye wanders across the seamless planes that blur foreground with background and an otherwise mundane object becomes aestheticised as a site of beauty.

Born in Iran in 1982, Mohammad Hassan Nikbakht received his Bachelor of Arts in Painting from Elm o Farhang University, Tehran in 2009. A member of the Society of Iranian Painters (SIP) and the Institute for Promotion of Visual Arts in Iran, Nikbakht has held numerous group exhibitions in Iran since 2008, and his first solo exhibition, The Mushroom Series, was held in 2010 at Siin Gallery, Tehran. In 2013, Nikbakht exhibited for the first time outside Iran with the Magic of Persia’s Contemporary Art Prize Shortlist exhibition, which was held at the Emirates Financial Towers in Dubai. 

Self-taught artist Sabhan Adam has developed a highly recognisable style of figurative painting that captures the darker side of man. With grotesque faces, distorted frames, and piercing eyes, Adam’s ghoulish protagonists leap out from the canvas with startling visual agility. While his portraits are known to possess physical traits that are reminiscent of his own features, this unconventional form of representation provides a path through which the self will eventually become liberated, free from the burden of representation and from earthly sentiments such as alienation and sadness. Despite their laden appearance, the artist’s protagonists are profoundly transcendental. Adam is widely acknowledged as a leading member of his generation, as he builds on earlier examples of expressionist painting in the Arab world.

Born in Al-Hassaka, Syria in 1972, Sabhan Adam has exhibited throughout the Middle East and Europe, including at the 2011 Venice International Biennale, and is represented by both regional and international galleries. Recent solo exhibitions for the artist were held at Mark Hachem Gallery, Lebanon, France, and New York (2012); Zara Gallery, Amman, Jordan (2011, 2010); and Gallery Tilal, Kuwait City, Kuwait (2011). 

Painter Walid El Masri’s practice revolves around the repeated examination of a single material subject as he explores variations in depth and space through abstracted compositions. In the past, the artist’s subject of choice was a chair, the stillness of which provided an anchoring pictorial element amidst the riotous brushwork of a non-descript setting. Like Morandi's vases or Cezanne's apples, El Masri's depictions are less about the objects themselves and more about the possibility of transformation that is derived from paying close attention to the object over time. In a recent body of work the artist observes movement and vibration as encapsulated in the life cycle of a butterfly cocoon, the dramatic transition of which stands as a symbolic representation of Syria in its current state.

Of Lebanese background, El Masri was born in Syria in 1979. Prior to completing a Bachelor of Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus in 2005, he studied the art of mosaic and trained with renowned expressionist painter Marwan Kassab Bachi at the Summer Academy of Darat Al-Funun, Amman, Jordan. Selected solo exhibitions include Ayyam Gallery, London (2014); Europia Gallery Paris (2014); Ayyam Gallery Jeddah (2013); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2013); Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai (2012); Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai (2009); Ayyam Gallery Damascus (2008); Syrian Cultural Centre, Paris (2007) and the French Cultural Center, Damascus (2006). Selected group exhibitions include the Busan Museum of Art (2014); Samsung Blue Square, Seoul (2014); the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2014); the Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (2014); Art Beijing Contemporary Art Fair (2009) and Art Hong Kong Art Fair (2009). 

Rostam in the Dead of Winter is based on Fereydoun Ave’s research on the macho-mystic, an exploration of the mystical in relation to the chivalrous in Persian folklore. Heroic ‘Rostam’ from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is known to be the ‘champion of champions.’ Ave’s mixed-media works depicting wrestlers echo Rostam’s image in their attempt to locate various positions of masculinity in the Iranian context. The featured lot depicts splashed paint resembling blood upon the top half of the artwork, and vultures that encircle Rostam’s head, which signify death, but also a desire for resurrection and renewal in a society that appears to be at the crossroads of stagnation.

Born in Tehran in 1945, Fereydoun Ave belongs to the first generation of contemporary Iranian artists. He has maintained a central position within Iranian art since the 1970s, when Tehran rose to become an active cultural center. Educated in England and the United States, Ave established Tehran’s first alternative art space, 13 Vanak Street in 1984; he is also credited with launching the careers of some of Iran’s most celebrated artists, including Farhad Moshiri. Select solo exhibitions for the artist include, Rossi & Rossi, London (2010) and B21 Gallery, Dubai (2009, 2007). The artist has been featured in group exhibitions at Brunei Gallery, the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (2013); Rossi and Rossi, London (2012, 2011); and JAMM, Shuwaikh, Kuwait (2011). 

Iranian artist Sadegh Tirafkan was recognised for his innovative blend of photography with other artistic media, as well as being an early proponent of photo-based art in Iran (Mehran Mohajer in ArtAsiaPacific). Having served as a conscripted soldier in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Tirafkan’s early work questioned 'masculinity' and its various expectations within Iran’s traditional, as well as contemporary, culture. Tirafkan is one of the first artists to have used historic and religious imagery in photographic works that also hint at techniques commonly associated with painting. The featured lot makes use of Persian script to denote commonality within a seemingly random assortment of people. The depicted characters, although strangers passing each other in a crowd, share a common language that can serve as a tool in bringing people and their stories together.

Sadegh Tirafkan was born into an Iranian family in Karbala, Iraq in 1965, and succumbed to brain cancer in 2013. He graduated from Tehran University with a degree in Photography in 1989, after which he went on to participate in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Tirafkan’s works are held in the collections of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art; the British Museum, London; the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Employing a recurring ‘Minnie Mouse’ figure in the series, Tagging the Undocumented, artist Huda Beydoun creates a photographic linkage between pop culture, graffiti art references, and social issues. In the series, the reference to Minnie Mouse functions as a stand-in for the chasm the artist feels but is unable to represent between herself and other or disprivileged factions of society. These are people she sees but does not necessarily have a chance to engage with in a direct or meaningful way, hence she interacts with them through the process of making art.

Huda Beydoun was born in 1988 in Jeddah. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education, with a focus on Autism Spectrum Disorders. She has also studied Graphic Design and Photography at Dar Al Hekma College, Jeddah. Painting is Beydoun’s first discipline whereas recent works have made use of mixed media, photography, and digital art. Beydoun has recently exhibited in international group exhibitions including at Edge of Arabia, London in 2013, and at the Venice Biennale, 2013. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Ayyam Gallery, Jeddah and Athr Gallery, Jeddah. 

Through playful photographs and graphic interventions, Arwa Abouon questions her place within a so-called Western culture on the one hand, and her upbringing in a Muslim household on the other. Abouon investigates mechanisms at play when learning and acquiring knowledge, and the different shapes that knowledge takes on as it is transferred from one generation to another. Balancing playful humour, irreverent re-appropriation and respectful homage, Arwa's work is visually impactful, as well as intricate in the range of the subtlety of voices it brings to the fore. Working predominantly in photography, the artist’s works span an array of mediums including video, illustration and light boxes as well as occasional site-specific installations.

Arwa Abouon was born in Tripoli in 1982. She is of Libyan-Tunisian heritage. She received a Bachelors of Fine Art with distinction from Concordia University, Montreal in 2007. She is based in Montreal, Canada. Selected group exhibitions include those at the Alexandria Biennial (2014), the Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris (2014, 2012), and The Third Line Gallery Dubai. In 2012 she held a solo exhibition at The Third Line Gallery’s project space.