Adam, Sabhan (Syria) Ahmed, Youssef (Qatar) Alaoui, Aziza (Morocco) Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad (Saudi Arabia) Atighetchi, Abol (Iran) Charriol, Alexandre (France/USA) El Nagdi, Omar (Egypt) El Rawas, Mohammed (Lebanon) El Siwi, Adel (Egypt) Guiragossian, Emmanuel (Lebanon) Guiragossian, Paul (Lebanon) Gulgee, Amin (Pakistan) Henein, Adam (Egypt) Kayyali, Louay (Syria) Kesrouani, Joe (Lebanon) Madi, Hussein (Lebanon) Moudarres, Fateh (Syria) Ramhani, Zakaria (Morocco) Yahiaoui, Kamel (Algeria)
Artspace Gallery was founded in 2003. It is now located at The Gate Village, Building 3 of Dubai International Financial Centre. Artspace is dedicated to the promotion of Contemporary Middle Eastern Art and Artists. The gallery caters to the taste and trends of the sophisticated Dubai art market and the gallery's discerning worldwide collector base. The gallery's diverse clientele includes private collectors, art consultants, corporate art consultants, architects, interior designers as well as business-people, government, diplomatic and social VIP's. Artspace gallery offers the client an extraordinary opportunity to acquire and taste some of the most contemporary Middle Eastern Art. Every three weeks, artist's artworks are exhibited, ranging from to paintings to sculpture. Artspace is a key player in the contemporary art field and has begun to branch out regionally. Local partnerships with highly acclaimed art houses and auction establishments have helped push Artspace into the forefront of the market. Like most aspects of this city, the art scene is booming and Artspace singles itself out from other competitors by offering distinctive and unrivaled services to its clients and artists. The demand for Middle Eastern Contemporary Arts is influenced not only by overall economic conditions, but also by changing trends in the art market as to which kinds of property and the works of which artists are most sought after and by the collecting preferences of individual collectors, all of which can be unpredictable, particularly in a new market. Maliha Al-Tabari , Artspace's Managing Director, has operated the gallery for five years upon her return from the U.S.A. after completing her B.F.A as well as a minor in Art History at Otis College of Art and Design, California and Ringling School of Art and Design, Florida. Maliha, who is a painter/sculptor herself says; "Ever since I returned to Dubai, I have noticed the lack of contemporary art and felt the need to promote modern Middle Eastern art in the country". Backed up by family as well as professional investors and collectors, all are extremely passionate about Art and focus on the long term success of the art business. Managed by qualified personnel, all contain well-established backgrounds in the field of Arts and all offer consultation. Artspace opened its doors at the Fairmont Dubai on May 2003 under the patronage of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein and at initiative of Ms. Maliha Al Tabari. Today, the team consists of management and active shareholders from all walks of life and professional backgrounds, all sharing the same life-time passion: art in general and Middle East contemporary art, in particular. This is a passion that they strive to communicate to connoisseurs and novices alike. With the promotion of Middle Eastern contemporary art at auction houses such as Christies and Sotheby’s and the advent of the Dubai Art Fair, Artspace has seen its business substantially grow over the last 12-18 months. HArtspace has also had the pleasure to be involved with world renowned establishments such as the British Museum. Not only does Artspace cater to the needs of both artists and art enthusiasts alike, but the gallery has gone beyond the boundaries of simply holding exhibitions and provides consulting for art investors as well as offering corporate art services to institutions. Through the course of its business, Artspace has established a lasting working and mutually beneficial relationship with artists that have set the standards within auction houses and art fairs across the globe.
FOREWORD The establishment of Artspace’s new gallery in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) comes at a time when contemporary art in the region is flourishing. Over the last few years, regional art has seen daring creative experimentation and developed a very strong identity and character. Not surprisingly, this artistic energy is catching the interest of an increasing number of private, institutional and corporate collectors. Concurrent with these developments, Dubai is emerging as a major centre for global art and a gateway to the finest art in the region. Artspace’s new gallery promises to play an important role in nurturing further interest in the region’s contemporary art. Galleries like Artspace provide an interactive platform for artists to communicate with the larger community. DIFC believes that art plays a subtle but important function in stimulating new perspectives in all spheres of life including business. By promoting art, we seek to improve the quality of our cultural and creative life, which can indirectly contribute to the generation of new ideas. We are keen to support and encourage galleries that foster the understanding and appreciation of art. For long, art has been on the fringes of public life in the region. I am sure that Artspace’s gallery in DIFC will contribute to the effort to enhance the role of art in our city’s social life.
OMAR BIN SULAIMAN Governor, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Managing Director of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority
“As the Managing Director of Artspace, I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to His Excellency Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, Governor of DIFC for his vision of combining art and lifestyle in DIFC.”
MALIHA AL TABARI Managing Director ARTSPACE LLC
Saleh Al Shukairi (Oman)
Would like to take this opportunity to give a heartfelt thank you to our sponsors
We would also like to extend our thanks to
for supporting us in this event.
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Morgans Hotel Group announces that the innovative Dutch designer, Marcel Wanders, will create Mondrian South Beach, their exciting new Hotel Residences opening in 2008. With Mondrian South Beach, Morgans Hotel Group has made a pioneering move away from the bustle of Miami Beach’s oceanfront tourist centre to the fashionable, growing neighbourhood of Biscayne Bay. The Hotel Residences are built on a prime waterfront location with views of the bay, ocean and downtown. Consisting of 335 studios, one and two-bedroom apartments and penthouses, Mondrian South Beach will combine the most exhilarating design elements of a fantasy modern get-away with all the comforts and conveniences of home. Facilities will include agua: a spa featuring wet and dry treatment rooms, a state of-the-art gym, a world-class, five-star restaurant, a dynamic nightlife experience, chic event spaces and a private 47 slip marina with a private dock master and sand barge. The residences may be purchased, offering the owners the opportunity to participate in the hotel rental program. This allows them the flexibility of a vacation or an extended stay in their own residence, while also providing rental income between visits. Wanders, a world-famous design star and an original member of the influential Droog collective in the Netherlands, has conceived of the Hotel Residences as “Sleeping Beauty’s castle.” Guests will step into a magical world, entering a leisurely oasis of gardens that leads to the spectacular interior. The gardens are designed as indoor/outdoor living spaces, with seating areas, an outdoor bar and cabanas for all ages, including tented play spaces with a sandbox and bouncy toys in the children’s area. A designer who prefers never to repeat himself, Wanders will furnish Mondrian South Beach with original pieces from his design studio, where he produces everything from lighting to flooring, including chairs, tables and sofas. Mondrian South Beach is one of several interiors projects he has completed. “Unlike product design, interiors are about theatre, leading you from one idea to the next and the next,” he says. “You need to breathe life into a space, which is a fascinating process for me.” “Morgans Hotel Group is excited to be working with Marcel Wanders. We feel that Marcel represents the very finest in bold, new, innovative design. With Mondrian South Beach, we are extending the diversity of our brands in a market we know well and where we have had great success with Delano and The Shore Club,” said Fred Kleisner, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The South Beach market is strong and continues to be an international destination of choice for savvy travellers who prefer the exclusivity and sophistication of our properties. When the project is complete, we expect Mondrian to be one of the most sought after properties in Miami Beach.” The collaboration with Wanders demonstrates Morgans Hotel Group’s continuing commitment to work with the most talented and inventive spirits in the design world. The Mondrian South Beach, key supporters of Art Basel Miami 2008, are excited to be able to cross continents and extend their support of the arts with the opening of the new Artspace.
Adam, Sabhan (Syria, B. 1972) The
Syrian
traditional
artist
Sabhan
conventions
of
strangely compelling about
Adam
breaks
with
beauty.
There
is
his
distorted
all
the
something
and misshapen
creatures, a compulsion that removes the limitations of our own judgments
of
we
to
right
beauty
in
admire
others
and
physical
in
ourselves. Are
perfection?
Does
this
exterior and transient perfection reflect the lasting spiritual? What are these conventions anyway, and is it true beauty that we see or merely the influence of our cultural milieu? Traditionally, Middle portraiture has been concerned with the aggrandizement or idealization of the subject, and has been liberally used as a tool for propaganda by the imperial
regime.
Here,
Adam
radically
inverts
the
convention, choosing to depict the ugly and diminished. By draping his creatures in scarlet robes, or gold and sequins – as he so often does – hiding the misshapen form behind grand man’s
accoutrements, superficial
concealed these
viewer, by beauty
behind
beasts and
the
nature,
appear
a
artist
the
true
misleading malformed
or
comments self
is
so
façade.
on often
Whether
transformed to
the
forcing us to question our preconceptions of our
temporary
body
with
all
the
entails,
Adam obliges us to question our own spiritual, individual and cultural identity.
Untitled 285.5 x 161 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Adam, Sabhan
Untitled 183 x 160 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Adam, Sabhan
Untitled 160 x 281 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Adam, Sabhan
Untitled 286 x 160 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Ahmed, Yousef
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Ahmed, Yousef (Qatar, B. 1955) Yousef
Ahmed
was
born
in
Doha
in
1955.
A
member
of
the
first
generation
of
modern
artists in Qatar, Ahmed by necessity studied abroad, receiving a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in fine arts from Mills College in California in 1982. Inspired by the forms and the hues of the flat desert landscape of his native Qatar and by Arabic
calligraphy, his paintings are often collages or mixed-media
works where meets colors and textures derived from natural elements. Lines are elongated across the canvas or wood, and letters and patterns are layered with architectural shapes. Ahmed has exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, and the Arab world, and is the director of the new Arab Art Museum in Doha.
Ahmed, Yousef
Letter Of Love 3 180 x 180 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2008
Ahmed, Yousef
Letter of Love 1 220 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Ahmed, Yousef
Letter of Love 2 220 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Ahmed, Yousef
Sild of Letters 200 x 200 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Alaoui, Aziza
The Blue Lagoon 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Alaoui, Aziza (Morocco) Aziza is born in Casablanca, Morocco. A German â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Moroccan who lives in Mexico since 1992. Concludes her Postgraduate Studies in International Marketing in Germany in 1991, and became the Graduate Translator at the University Of Mainz,Germany in 1989. Continuously participates in different art workshops on multiple art supports.
Alaoui, Aziza
The Black Trees 100 x 100 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2007
Alaoui, Aziza
Mahmoud 30 x 40 cm Oil On Canvas 2006
Alaoui, Aziza
Naima 77 x 77 cm Oil On Canvas 2007
Atighetchi, Abol
Surah Al-Ikhlas 208 x 139.5 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Atighetchi, Abol (Iran, B. 1948) Abol began with Nouvelle Figuration in France and maintained an interest in calligraphy because of its intense graphic effect and beauty. In
1996,
calligraphy great
he in
Persian
decided
to
Thuluth Sufi
and
take
and
up
Kufi
Poet,
the on
Jalal
challenge canvas
e
din
and
and
Mollana
on
after
some
wood.
known
as
At
initial the
Rumi
studies same
and
he
he
gained
time,
he
decided
to
confidence became dedicate
to
take
extremely all
his
up
large
format
influenced
by
the
calligraphies
to
him.
Since 1987, Abol Atighetchi has regularly participated in sales at the Drouot Auctions in Paris and has quotations listed on major art websites listed as ABOL. Today, Abol is exploring new frontiers through different methods of designing modern calligraphy in very large format. Abol Atighetchi is also a member of ‘La Maison des Artistes - Association des Artistes’, he has been actively participating in ‘Maison de vente Drouot’ (Paris Based auction house). Abol is a member of ‘Akoun’ : The Valuation/Quotation of Painters in the world.
Atighetchi, Abol
A Salam Aleykom 214.5x140 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Molana al sultan al salatin 200x150 Acrylic On Canvas 2007
Atighetchi, Abol
Surah Al-Nas 210 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad Aseeri (Saudi Arabia, B. 1979) Born in Abha in 1979, Ahmed Mater is one of Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated young artists. His last solo exhibition was opened by the King of Saudi Arabia. He is also a man of many masks. As well as being a qualified GP he is a landscape photographer, a curator and a conceptual artist. Born and raised in Abha, capital of Aseer (a region to the south of Saudi Arabia), Mater remains rooted in his Aseeri local identity. As well as leading a young artistic collective called Ibn Aseer (Son of Aseer), he is an integral part of the recent history of Abha’s Miftaha Arts Village, part of the King Fahad Cultural Centre. In the recent ‘Edge of Arabia’ exhibition in London, Mater was not only Co-Curator but also contributed two pieces involving X-Rays. Each combines this medical imagery with the memory of local artifacts such as the talisman of Fatima, or the opening pages of traditional religious texts. With Illuminations he draws out an important theme in his work by examining polarity and conversation, presenting two human torsos that are both in opposition to each other yet dependent on their counterpart. As with so much of Mater’s work, the aim is to shed light and create dialogue.
X-Ray 5
Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad
Kabba Series
Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad
X-Ray 3 & 4
Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad
Telesmanic 2
Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad
X-Ray 2008
Aseeri, Dr. Ahmed Mater al-Ziad
Kabba Series
Charriol, Alexandre
Le General 98 x 110 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2005
Charriol, Alexandre (French/American, B. 1979) Alexandre Charriol, a member of the Charriol family whose patriarch, Philippe Charriol, is founder and creator of the eponymous international luxury brand, was born in Hawaii and studied alternatively at the Parson School of Design, Tufts University, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Northeastern University, before setting up his own studio here in New York. Since 1999, he has had a number of sold-out national and international exhibitions at the Yoshii Gallery in Paris, the Ayala Museum in Manila and at the Kee Club and Art Statements Gallery in Hong Kong.
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 150 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar (Egypt, B. 1931) Dr. Omar El-Nagdi a sculptor, director, musician and philosopher was born in Cairo in 1931 and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts Helwan University, in 1953. He participated in many exhibitions and Biennales in Egypt, Europe and the former Soviet Union where he was awarded a one-year scholarship to study ceramics in 1959. El Nagdi obtained a diploma from the Venice-based Ruskin Artistic Appreciation Institute, Italy. El-Nagdi made his mark in establishing the Egyptian identity in modern Egyptian art and has been awarded numerous awards including first prize in Alexandria Biennale in 1966, 1968 and 1974. His works are exhibited at museums in Egypt, Italy, France, USA, England & Korea and has had numerous solo and collective exhibitions around the world.
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2007
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 150 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2007
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 130 x 130 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 1970
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 150 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 150 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas
Diamond 150 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Untitled 150 x 180 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2005
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 175 x 175 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2007
El Nagdi, Dr. Omar
Untitled 155 x 175 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
Untitled 190 x 190 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
El Rawas, Mohammed
The Institution 60 x 74 cm Lithograph (ed. 23/35) 2002
El Rawas, Mohammad (Lebanon, B. 1951) Born in Beirut in 1951, cosmopolitan and internationalist in his thinking, Mohamad Rawas frequently “quotes” images from European art and photography – from Michelangelo to Peter Blake, from Vermeer to Nadar – as well as from his Middle Eastern roots. Words and three – dimensional assemblages find a place on many of the canvases, further extending a work’s expressive possibilities. Mohamad Rawas is one of the most innovative Lebanese artists on the contemporary scene. His art is multifaceted and dynamic; using symbols and references to create ambiguous worlds that seem to stand outside a particular place or time. He is dedicated to the endless quest of manipulating paint and mixed media, and to breaking the boundaries of conventional pictorial techniques. The works of Rawas could be found in different public collections and museums in London, Sharjah, Norway, Baghdad, Lebanon, Tunis & Amman.
EL SIWI, ADEL
(Left) Untitled, 50 x 70 cm, Mixed Media On Paper, (Right) Untitled, 50 x 70 cm, Mixed Media On Paper, 1996
El Siwi, Adel (Egypt, B. 1952) Egyptian painter Adel El-Siwi was born in Beheira, Egypt in 1952. Between 1970 and 1976, he studied medicine at Cairo University before seriously considering a career as a painter. Like other Egyptian artists of the late 1970s, El Siwi, who had emigrated to Europe and North America, was compelled to return to the motherland, drawn by the power of Egypt’s legacy of art aesthetic achievement. In 1980 he moved to Milan only to return to Cairo in 1990 where he currently lives and works. After twelve years of self-training and traveling in Europe and Egypt, he had his first major show in 1985 at the Cairo Atelier. Since the 1980’s he had his solo exhibitions in Egypt, Germany, Lebanon and Italy. He participated in group exhibitions as far across the globe as Brazil and Mexico. The 1988’s exhibition at the Mashrabia Gallery in Cairo marked El Siwi’s transition from the human figure to
the
interiors
cape.
This
new
phase
attempted
to
give
the
traditional
still
life
object
pride
and
powerful
presence.
His
latest
works have been more narrative and ironic. Pure colors pierce the tonal elements, but are restrained by the somber Egyptian landscape marked by the monochromes of the desert and the grayness of Cairo. El-Siwi chooses to use the trite, simple themes of flower pots, palm trees, camels, etc. For considerable time, El Siwi strongly believed that the more limited means the stronger
the potential of the expression.
Hence, he refused to use any other medium of painting than painting on paper or canvas. However, in his most recent work in the 1997’s Venice Biennale’s exhibition Modernity’s & Memories: Recent Works from the Islamic World, a room installation entitled The Face and Beyond, El Siwi explores the new genre of conceptual art through painting.
EL SIWI, ADEL
Caravan 140 x 170 cm Mixed media on canvas pasted on wood 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
Alexandry 140 x 170 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
Asmahan 170 x 140 cm Mixed Media On Canvas Pasted On Wood 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
Kalam 140 x 170 cm Mixed Media On Canvas Pasted On Board 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
(Left to Right) Queen Nefertiti, Princess Sotepenre, Princess Merytaten, King Akhenaten, 100 x 90 cm Mixed Media On Wood 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
African Gentlemen 270 x 160 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
EL SIWI, ADEL
African Lady 270 x 160 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2008
GUIRAGOSSIAN, EMMANUEL
Arrival 180 x 100 cm Oil On Canvas 1995
Guiragossian, Emmanuel (Lebanon, B. 1954) Born in 1954, Lebanese – German painter, sculptor, graphic artist and publisher from Armenian decent. Emmanuel's talents and ambitions earned him an admission to take classes at the Art Academy of Paris in 1972 followed by more advanced courses at the Michael-Angelo Academy in Florence in 1973 after which he obtained a scholarship and attended the Hochshule fur Bildende kunst Fine Arts Academy in Dresden- Germany with the collaboration of professors Gerhard Kettner , Siegfried Klotz, Juan Leon and A.R.Penk. After graduating in 1979 Emmanuel specialized in Artistic Anatomy and obtained a PHD in 1980. Over the last 28 years Emmanuel has had over 30 solo and collective art shows around the world and has published over 8 books of art including his father‘s Paul Guiragossian’s works in 1982 and Iranian artist Marcos Grigorian’s works in the late 80’s and founded the Emmagoss Art galleries in Beirut (1990), the Paul Guiragossian Museum of contemporary Art and Emmagoss Dresden (2007). He has consulted and collaborated with several art foundations in Lebanon and Jordan to encourage building museums for contemporary arts in the region.
Guiragossian, Emmanuel
Untitled 180 x 110 cm Oil On Canvas 2003
(Left to Right): The Race, Vision, Winner 100 x 100 cm Oil On Canvas 2005
GUIRAGOSSIAN, EMMANUEL
Guiragossian, Paul Guiragossian, Paul (Lebanon, 1926â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1993) One of the greatest of Lebanese artists, Paul Guiragossian was born in 1926 in Jerusalem. He began painting as a child and started his early training in 1942 in Studio Yarkon in Jerusalem. After the second World War in 1948 Paul migrated to Lebanon with his mother and brother, where he got married and lived for the rest of his life (1993), having become Lebanons most celebrated painter, a renown he retains to this day. In 1956 he received a scholarship to study at the Academy of fine Arts in Florence and in 1958 participated in the Biennale of Florence after which he received an invitaion from the French government to participate in the Biennale of Paris in 1961 where he resided and worked until 1962 and exhibited his works at the Gallery Mouffe. Paul returned to Paris in 1989 for an exhibition at the Unesco and resided and painted some of his largest masterpieces for a year. He remained between Beirut and Paris travelling and exhibiting his works until 1992 when he had his first solo show ever in the IMA (Institut du Monde Arabe) that went on for 3 months. With over 50 solo shows and many collective shows worldwide, and producing over 5,000 works of art, on his final day (November 20, 1993) Paul painted his last painting which remains unsigned in the family collection, and admitted to his daughter Manuella "I finally reached what Ive always wantedâ&#x20AC;Śbrought the old and the new togetherâ&#x20AC;Śit's my best work yet".
Tranquility 70 x 100 cm Oil On Canvas 1980
Guiragossian, Paul
Festivites 130 x 82 cm Oil On Canvas 1986
Gulgee, Amin
Gulgee, Amin (Pakistan, B. 1969) Internationally renowned metal sculptor Amin Gulgee was born in 1969 and hails from Karachi, Pakistan. He is the son of the legendary Pakistani artist Ismail Gulgee. A graduate from Yale University, USA. He has exhibited his works extensively in the USA, Europe and the Middle East. His second exhibition was in Malaysia, the first being a hugely successful exhibition entitled â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Search for Lightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in 2004. Sculptor Amin Gulgee is an innovator of tradition. His medium is metal, his inspiration was the varied and rich spiritual history of his native Pakistan. Within more than ten years that the artist has been exhibiting, his work has followed many different directions, from purely abstract to work that was inspired from Hindu mythology, Buddhist civilization and Islamic calligraphy. Although diverse, these directions influence and nourish one another for they all attempt to depict the spirituality of man.
Henein, Adam
Resting Man 37.5 x 62 x 28.5 Bronze 1955
Henein, Adam (Egypt, B. 1929) Adam Henein was born on March 31, 1929. He completed his training as a sculptor at the Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts in 1953. Since that time, he has steadfastly devoted his life to the art of sculpture, from which nothing has distracted him, except the practice of colour drawing, in keeping with traditional Egyptian techniques. Today he is considered to be one of the major sculptors of our time. His work has been shown in Egypt, in the Arab world, in Europe, and at the Metropolitan in New York. Ten years ago, after having lived for almost a quarter of a century in Paris, Adam Henein returned to live in the country of his birth. Over this past decade, he has produced a number of granite sculptures. It was in Aswan, a city that since Antiquity has been famous for its granite quarries, that Henein established the International Sculpture Symposium, of which he has been director since 1996. He was awarded the State Award for the Arts in 1998 and the Moubarak Prized in 2004.
Henein, Adam
Owl 23 x 18.5 x 18 cm Bronze 1963
Henein, Adam
Sun Disk 1 51 x 50 x 9 cm Bronze 1980 - 83
Three Heads, Silent Conversation (Left to right) 56 x 18 x 17 cm 62 x 25 x 18 cm 51 x 15 x 18 cm 1968-69
Henein, Adam
Goat 110 x 90 x 40 cm Bronze
Henein, Adam
Victory Rising 46.5 x 38 x 14 cm Bronze 1974
Henein, Adam
The Reader 40 x 30 x 20 cm Bronze 1968 - 69
Henein, Adam
Untitled 94 x 76 cm Natural Pigment And Gum Arabic On Papyrus 1992
Henein, Adam
Untitled 88 x 70 cm Natural Pigment And Gum Arabic On Papyrus 1972
Henein, Adam
Untitled 86 x 72 cm Natural Pigment And Gum Arabic On Papyrus 1992
Henein, Adam
Cheikh El Balad 55 x 25 x 16 cm Bronze 1974
Henein, Adam
Horse 27 x 17 x 14 cm Bronze 1963
Kayyali, Louay
Untitled 73 x 93 cm Mixed Media On Wood 1974
Kayyali, Louay (Syria, 1934 – 1978) Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1934, Kayyali studied decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome from 1956-61. He served as a teacher in Syria High School before becoming a professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University. The first exhibition of his paintings was held in his hometown of Aleppo in 1952. In 1967 his controversial exhibition “fi Sabil al-Qadiyyah” (for the Sake of The [Arab] Cause) including thirty black and white works in charcoal, criticized by many artists and journalists as being very pessimistic. After Israel’s victory in the Six-Day war and the occupation of Arab territories, Kayyali went into such a deep depression that he destroyed all the works from the show. He died in 1978, alleged to have committed suicide. Many of his works are now kept at the National Museum of Damascus and in private collections across the Arab world. Kayyali’s canvases depict popular subjects in a style that is a mixture of both Realism and Expressionism.
Kayyali, Louay
Untitled 93 x 95 cm Mixed Media On Wood 1973
Kesrouani, Joe
Artificial Clouds Triptych 400 x 120 cm Acrylic and Ink On Canvas 2002
Kesrouani, Joe (Lebanon, B. 1968) Joe Kesrouani studied architecture in Paris and learned painting and photography on his own. Now based in Beirut, he divides his time among numerous disciplines – architecture, painting and photography. He has been exhibiting his artwork regularly since the mid 1990's. Kesrouani’s paintings and photographs represent two levels of lived experience. His dramatic, high-contrast black-and-white photographs are charged with confident sexuality, and the subjects of his portraits loom large on his prints with visceral, extroverted expressions that take patience, intimacy, and will to elicit. His paintings, on the other hand, blend abstraction and figuration to convey more introverted, complex, emotionally probing narratives. There are stories buried into the layers of paint in each of his canvases. In the construction of images, Kesrouani’s architectural training plays into both his photographs and paintings. On occasion, he brings a DJ's logic into his work as well – mounting an exhibition of photographs and then, six months later, “remixing” those works in a show of paintings that draw on the original photographs for physical support and conceptual platform. Though Kesrouani is quintessentially Beiruti, his work allows no easy classification in terms of Arab or Middle Eastern representation. His work actively breaks clichés, rather than reinforcing them. As such, the world created by Kesrouani’s photographs and paintings is a world entirely of his own imagination. It is a world nearly busting it seems with pleasure and danger alike, where everything goes and nothing is exactly as it seems.
Kesrouani, Joe
Veilleuses pour Baleines 240 x 170 cm Acrylic and Ink On Canvas 2007
Kesrouani, Joe
The New President 150 x 120 cm Acrylic and Ink On Canvas 2008
Kesrouani, Joe
Drone Party 200 x 140 cm Acrylic and Ink On Canvas 2006
Madi, Hussein
Untitled Untitled 70 xx 80 80 cm cm 70 Acrylic On On Canvas Canvas Acrylic 2001
Madi, Hussein (Lebanon, B. 1938) Hussein Madi, painter, sculptor and printmaker, is considered among the Arab world’s foremost artists. Born in 1938 in Chebaa, Lebanon. Between 1973-1986, he lived between Rome and Beirut. In 1986 he decided to stay permanently in Beirut. Madi’s art has been viewed by thousands of people around the world at such venues as the British Museums, the Venice Biennale and Tokyo’s Ueno Museum. Madi’s joyful experiments in colour and form have resulted in a unique body of work that relates to modern artists like Matisse and Picasso as well as to the principles of divine harmony that inform the abstract designs of Islamic art. Whether in two or three dimensions, Madi’s lines sing with a spontaneous freedom that belies the careful, even exacting, calculations that the artist invests in each work. The combination of meticulousness and sensuality is everywhere evident in Madi’s work, inspired by his profound belief in “God’s universal order, in which everything is different and yet composed of the same cosmic elements.”
Untitled 140 x 140 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2005
Madi, Hussein
Untitled 85 x 100 cm Acrylic On Canvas 1995
Madi, Hussein
Untitled, 95 x 95 cm, Acrylic On Canvas
Madi, Hussein
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2007
Madi, Hussein
Untitled 140 x 150 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2006
Moudarres, Fateh
Wada Al Aliha 100 x 120 cm Oil On Canvas 1995
Moudarres, Fateh (Syria, 1922-1999) Born in Aleppr, Syria in 1922, Moudarres graduated from Romeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fine Art Academy in 1960. He then attended the Cole nationale Superieure de Arts in Paris receiving his diploma in 1972. He was head of the Fine Arts Faculty in Damascus. Moudarresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; artwork has been exhibited widely, including the Cichi Gallery in Rome, the Austrian Cultural Centre in Germany, the French Cultural Centre in Damascus, and the Green Art Gallery in Dubai. His works hang on the walls of the Syrian Ministry of Culture, the National Museum in Damascus, the Dummar Museum, the Presidential Palace, and in numerous private collections. Moudarres passed away in Damascus in 1999. In addition to being a painter, Moudarres was also a published poet and essayist.
Moudarres, Fateh
Kahna w Al Fallahat 100 x 150 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 1990
Moudarres, Fateh
Wada Al Aliha fi Beirut 320 x 120 cm Oil and Sand On Canvas 1976
Ramhani, Zakaria (Morocco, B. 1983) Zakaria Ramhani was born in Tangiers in 1983. As the son of a father renowned for his typically Moroccan and traditional paintings of scenery, portraits and still life, Zakaria Ramhani learned the art of painting very early in the family studio. After school and college, where he was trained in art and education, he developed a universe of isolated and expressive human figures that, placed in the foreground of compositions saturated with colours and symbolic objects but devoid of a clear narrative, compel feelings of idleness and desolation in the spectator. In 2006, Zakaria is the youngest person from his country to receive a bursary from the French government to participate in a creative residency at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. The denuded bodies in his next paintings became more amorphous, anonymous and acquired more poetry. The organic was even sometimes limited to isolated fragments presented in a tight framework or formally propelled within an earth-toned horizon. Before going abroad, Ramhani expanded his artistic vision with an inclination towards art’s universal nature. During his stay in the land of the Other, where he came into direct contact with Western culture and international contemporary art, Ramhani developed new personal and artistic preoccupations. He claimed and proclaimed his own culture, as well as the insidious part of the Other within himself, and the renewal of his representational painting. Upon his return to his Tangiers workshop in 2007, he involved himself with great urgency in a vast project that he calls De droite à gauche. Using Arabic, sometimes juxtaposed with French and English, he superimposes letters, words and phrases to create layers of readable and non-readable matter that is shaped into faces. He thus creates sets of paintings that are presented as polyptychs or diptychs and that have quickly captivated people’s interest and generated many new avenues for his international career. Ramhani’s pursuit of his resolutely expressive and spirited art has been vindicated, and it now freely extends itself into pictorial representations where the sacred, the poetic, and the political are echoes of the world’s realities and absurdities.
Anne-Marie Belley Art Historian Montreal, Canada
(Right) Faces of your Other 21 120 x 100 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2008
Faces of your Other 120 x 100 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2008
RAMHANI, ZAKARIA
RAMHANI, ZAKARIA
Faces of your Other 20 120 x 100 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2008
Faces of your Other 22 240 x 200 cm Acrylic On Canvas 2008
YAHIAOUi, KAMEL
The Ancestors are Intensifying their ferocity I 60 x 37 x 19 cm Mixed Media On Suitcase 2007
Yahiaoui, Kamel (Algeria, B. 1966) Yahiaouiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s origins lie in Azzefoun (Kabylie). He grew up in the Casbah of Algiers. This experience has influenced his art and led him to become an activist against social injustice and torture. Yahiaoui also writes poetry, influenced by a range of poets and his strong family tradition of oral poetry. He attended the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Algiers in 1985-89 and left Algeria in 1990 to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, with a scholarship. Yahiaouiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work has been included in a number of exhibitions. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1992.
YAHIAOUi, KAMEL
The Prayer of the Absent 92 x 146 cm Mixed Media On Carpet 2003
YAHIAOUi, KAMEL
The Prayer of the Absent 121 x 188 cm Mixed Media On Carpet 2003
Gallery Collection
Al Shaarani, Mouneer
Untitled 100 x 100 cm Chinese Ink & Gouache On Paper 2008
Al Shaarani, Mouneer
Untitled 100 x 100 cm Chinese Ink & Gouache On Paper 2008
Henein, Adam
Om Kalthoum 160 x 50 x 50 cm Bronze Edition 7/7
Kayyali, Louay
Untitled 116 x 95 cm Mixed Media On Board 1972
Sharif, AbdulRahim
Harlem Hispanic 120 x 140 cm Oil on canvas 2007
Sharif, AbdulRahim
Bathtub 120 x 140 cm Oil on canvas 2007
Kaitouqa, Mohammed
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2005
Kaitouqa, Mohammed
Untitled 120 x 120 cm Mixed Media On Canvas 2005
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