Amal Alkhaja Visual Artist
“Art is not a thing, it is a way” Elbert Hubbard
Artist Statement Art started with me with doodles, which one-day I realized are so important to me to throw away. Those doodles eventually developed to be a big part of my present art works. When I look around I see people, they are family, friends and even strangers and that eventually lead me to thinking about their lives, stories and behaviors. I have special interests in people’s behaviors, their causes and actions. I have a special interest in them because they are usually ignored and not valued. The small nothing actions of small nothing people that when linked together make a lot more sense and have a lot more of an importance. I start all my work with pencil and paper, weather it’s a digital or physical artwork. Eventually it turns into a painting, a print, a video, and illustration, a sculpture, a book or sometimes it stays as a pencil drawing. I do not use one specific medium or field to deliver my ideas and that’s because I think it’s limiting. Instead, I would rather choose my materials depending on my concept and therefore have it realized in the best way possible. As an artist I aim to raise awareness to the importance of social behaviors and their impact on the social environment and the surrounding society.
Untittled Digital photography 40 cm x 30 cm 2008
Bio Is a 22 years old visual arts student born in UAE 1990. She gets her inspiration from the people around her weather she knows them or not, their actions and stories. The dominant appearance of her work are a type of patterns that she started since childhood and gradually developed to look neater and more appealing, now Amal uses those patterns in most of her work. Her most recent activity was interning with the Paradise Row from London at the Art Dubai exhibition in 2012. She was exhibited in the Emerge 2 exhibition in Venice. In 2012 she won the Sketches by Boz illustration competition and in 2009 her photograph was shortlisted for the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award. Amal was a Vise President in AIESEC Zayed University local comity. AIESEC is a world wide student run NGO that focuses on training students on cooperative work and introduces them to event organization and offers interested students some exchange opportunities.
40th National Day Film photography 40 cm x 30 cm 2011
Capturing the city The Dubai Metro is a fairly new architectural figure. Despite that fact, it is very hard to imagine Dubai without it. It has become one of the unique elements that get included in every picture or work that would describe the city. I wanted to go beyond the architectural aspect of the metro and go deeper, watch the people and observe their movements, activities and conversations then capture that in my drawings. I documented their journey starting from the first step they take in the station, to the time they spend in the train and on their way out. This project was submitted to the Sketches by Boz competition organized by the British council in the UAE and won the +18 category.
Live sketches at the Metro
Capturing the city Water color illustrations 17 cm x 10 cm 2012
Capturing the city Water color illustrations 20 cm x 17 cm 2012
Capturing the city Water color illustrations 17 cm x 10 cm 2012
Faces The masks project was created to address most important element in any memory, the people in it. Those people who make the memory and make it special. Therefore, creating a mask for the people in those memories was a representation of their importance and a way to show their value to the audience. Yet, the reason those faces are white is that they take part of my personal memory not anyone else’s and therefore I should be able to recognize them but not everyone else. While looking at the installation people should be able to understand the concept and see the esthetic side of it but the little details of all the events represented in there masks are kept for me to smile at while seeing the installation.
Faces Plaster masks 2012
Faces Plaster masks 2012
Pleasant prison A photograph represents the nuns of the S端mela Monastery in Trabzon, Turkey. The reason this image was dedicated to the nuns despite the differences in my and their beliefs is that I found the devotion and love for a certain spiritual belief is so beautiful. The nuns of this monastery were locked at a building in the mountains where they were cut from the outer world and had to live in the hardest living conditions, and yet all of that was not forces into them but by their own choice. Their love for their belief made them choose to be in prison willingly. This photo was shortlisted for the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award in 2009.
Pleasant Prison Digital photography 40 cm x 30 cm 2008
Memorable The prints are created to represent some people I consider dear to me. Different objects on those prints where given to me as gifts from those people. Those prints are my way of involving important people in my work, express appreciation and sharing that appreciation to viewers.
Memorable Etching 13 cm x 10 cm 2011
Recharge The painting is a self-portrait. It talks about my stressful times and how I deal with it. In such times I like to give myself a break where I absolutely do nothing and just sit in a position that would relaxes me and clear my mind. Those short periods of times I dedicate to myself helps clear up my mind. The patterns in the painting is a representation of the type of mood I go to which is a dreamy, cheerful, and relaxed state of mind.
Recharge Acrylic 60 cm x 30 cm 2012
Lady Sybil A portrait of lady Sybil of the TV show Downton Abbey. The reason behind choosing her portrait to paint is that I found her features hard to draw and very challenging and therefore I decided to paint her to practice my portrait painting skills.
Lady Sybil Oil painting on canvas 41 cm x 33 cm 2011
A million little pieces The project is named after the book “A million little pieces� by James Frey. The book is about his struggle through rehabilitation from drug addiction and he tells the story of his days in the rehab center. Through out the whole book he describes feeling and emotions he went through and those feeling get the reader attached to the story because he/she might have experienced them too. They are feeling that almost everyone went through in their struggling time and therefore I choose to take out the story and highlight the bits and pieces that everyone can relate to and that makes the book a true story not just about James Frey but about each and every viewer.
A million little pieces Book structure 22 cm x 17 cm 2012
Playing cards from the 50’s Playing cards from the 50’s is a part of a collaborative work between four students to create a complete set of cards that represent eras. Each suit was represented as a different era and designed by a different student. Spades were represented by the 50’s. The best way to represent the 50’s time and life style was through the music, dancers, singers, actors and celebrities of that time. Frank Sinatra was chosen for the Ace, Elvis for the King, Nancy Sinatra as the Queen, and Little Richard as Jack and some other characters for the numbers and Marlin Monroe as the Joker. The box was inspired from cigarettes boxes from the 50’s. The back of the cards has the same design on the box
Playing cards from the 50’s Illustrations 8 cm x 5 cm 2012
Playing cards from the 50’s Illustrations 8 cm x 5 cm 2012
It all starts with an “A” This project is about self-promotional package that would represent me as an artist. To create my self-promotional peace I put a list of simple things that represent me, things that people would notice about me on daily basis. Those things were the following, my love for the color blue, my care about environment, I drink coffee everyday and I’m a visual artist. I thought about a coffee sleeve because it’s something I use everyday, it’s reusable and reduces the waste of paper sleeves, it’s made out of canvas fabric with my logo screen printed on it, and it’s blue. It is made in a way that whoever going to use it will have it with them wherever they go, and even if they throw away the box they’ll still have my contact information on the sleeve itself. As for the line “It All Starts With An A”, it’s pointing out the fact that my name and my major both starts with the same letter.
It all starts with an “A” Screen print on canvas 12 cm x 8 cm 2012
Amal Alkhaja +97150 966 36 36 amal.khj@gmail.com www.amalalkhaja.wordpress.com