Q0DE Christmas Catalogue 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS Ahmad Salameh Ali Yass Avo markarian Azza Al Sharif maRWA nAJJAR mUSTAFA ILKTEFAN Omar Najjar Reem Yasouf Saddam Jumaily Samer Kurdi Shahad Daoud Yazan mESMAr
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q0de is ...
A Amman-based artists agency and art consultancy. Now in its second year of operation, it works primarily in three areas: firstly, it represents artists from across the Middle East, including Jordan, Syria and Iraq, doing everything from procuring exhibitions to managing social media and advertising, to selling work. Secondly, it provides an individuallytailored art consultancy service to collectors. Finally, through its blog,q0de Review, it aims to provide a platform for the promotion of Jordanian arts and culture to a wider audience, both across the Middle East and further afield.
* All prices listed are in USD unless otherwise stated.
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Ahmad Salameh Ahmed, a gifted young artist, is currently in his second year at the University of Jordan studying Fine Art. Working mainly in black and white, he deftly creates spirited portraits full of movement and character that seem to leap right off the page. His chalk and charcoal pieces are alive with the subtleties of light and shade, a million emotions and stories hidden in their depths. His etchings, meanwhile, explore the intricacies of form, lines spreading across the canvas like spiders’ webs.
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$ 620 charcoal + chalk on paper 83 x 81 cm
This year he was selected to participate in the Cairo Amman Bank’s 7x7 Exhibition, which highlights the emerging talents of local artists.
$ 270 etching on paper (AP) 32 x 26 cm
$ 340 watercolor + pencil on paper 35 x 26 cm
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Ali Yass
An Iraqi artist, now living in Jordan, Ali’s knowing works belie his young age: he is currently studying Visual Arts with a focus on Painting, at the University of Jordan. Through a clever combination of mixed media and more traditional techniques, Ali’s works deal with a broad variety of topics, from consumerism to body image to war and conflict.
$ 300 mixed media on paper 5
24 x 33 cm
$ 300 mixed media on paper 24 x 33 cm
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Avo Markarian
Avo is a Jordanian-Armenian photographer, specialising in an array of motion and still photography. As the son of a photographer, Avo started his career assisting his father in 1997. 16 years later Avo has built a reputation as one of the best photographers in Jordan, and his work has been published in local and international magazines and new outlets.
$ 430 Photograph 7
60 x 70 cm
Recently, his work has grown to include larger-scale pieces. He relishes trying to capture the individual ethos and spirit in his shots: as a student of photography, he lives and works by the principle of “capturing the soul of every moment.� His pursuit of new experiences and practices pushes him to constantly evolve his vision and skills, while always remembering that his camera is an extension of himself, and to carry it with curiosity, humour and focus.
$ 430 Photograph 60 x 70 cm
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Azza Al Sharif
$ 360 mixed media on board 60 x 60 cm
Azza is a Syrian artist of Palestinian extraction, now living in Amman. She graduated in 2008 with a degree in Visual Arts from the Faculty of Fine Art, Damascus University. Since then, Azza Alsharif has been working in her workshop whilst exploring personal projects and seeking her own personality of art.
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$ 220 (As a set) mixed media on cccpaper 30 x25 cm
$ 140 mixed media on paper 30 x25 cm
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Marwa Najjar Marwa Najjar is a palestinian painter known for her haunting portraits nd delicate gold and silver leaf work. In this series of originals she explores wistful themes; the neautral tones contrasted by a soft him of the autumnal. Najjar’s work focuses on the female both young and old, as women and children tend to be the ‘forgotten ones’ in times of conflict. Left to pick up the pieces of a catastrophic aftermath. She combines this with inspiration drawn from the works of Gustav Klimpt and Byzantine religious iconography of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially in her use of gold and silver leaf. This juxtaposition of grandeur with somber portraiture gives Najjar’s work a somewhat surreal air; she is no slave to realism- rather, she is interested in what she calls the ‘bizarre’.
$250 Giclée print 11
36 x 60 cm
$ 250 Giclée print 60 x 55 cm
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\$ 25.43 | Heading | sep 2013
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$ 700
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Oil and Silver Leaf
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on Canvas
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70 x 50 cm
$ 750 Oil on Canvas 70 x 50 cm
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$ 250 Giclée Print (AP) 45 x 50 cm
$ 850 Oil + Gold Leaf on Canvas 70 x 50 cm 15
$ 850 Oil + Gold Leaf on Canvas 70 x 50 cm
$ 850 Oil + Gold Leaf on Canvas 70 x 50 cm
Mustafa Ilktefan Ilktefan is a Syrian painter, known for his irreverent portraiture and striking use of colour. He is inspired by in the history of the Middle Ages in Europe, as well as modern forms of Orientalism. Using mainly oil and acrylic, Ilktefan’s portrayals of character are at times absurdly comedic, at times poignant and troubling; there’s a degree of humour, but it is mixed with an abstracted sense of sensitivity. The figures in his work often seem observed, trapped like objects in a different plane of existence, drawing the viewer in while simultaneously remaining aloof.
$ 700 Acrylic on canvas 17
150 x 90 cm
$ 800 acryic on canvas 150 x 90 cm
$ 700 Acrylic on canvas 150 x 90 cm
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$ 100 Ink on Paper 42 x 53 cm
$ 100 Ink on Paper 42 x 53 cm
$ 170 (Set of 3) Ink + PENCIL on Paper 25 X 13cm (eACH) 19
Omar Najjar
Omar Najjar is a promising young Palestinian painter, known for his innovative style which he describes as “structured chaos.” His approach is classical, and his portraits- though moderncontain a rigid sense of the traditional. Najjar’s work is born from an early interest in human form and anatomy, which has matured into something more fleeting – it is as though these scenes from everyday life are seen through a fogged window or a distorted lens. His figures, rendered in oil, pastel and charcoal, blend with the backdrops that surround them, their colour palettes becoming one. His draws influence from the work of artists such as Ann Gale, Gabriela Bodin, Sam Dillemans, Jennifer Poon, Alex Kanevsky, Antonio Lopez, and Jenny Seville.
$ 850 oIL ON cANVAS 50 x 100 cm
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Reem Yasouf Reem is a Syrian artist working in Amman. Her work features three motifs: a child, a cat, and occasionally a kite. Themes of innocence and a longing to be free play out across ethereal blue and greyscale streets. Neat geometric blocks dissipate into white noise. Shadows interact with the floating figures around them: the city beyond remains formless.
$ 220 ink on paper 30 x 20 cm 21
Saddam Jumaily Originally Iraqi, Saddam Jumaily is now based in Jordan. He studied at the Basra University College of Fine Arts, obtaining both his BA and MA in Fine Arts there, and returning to lecture. Saddam’s raw, captivating style deals with transformation of the mundane into something entirely more unusual. Strange, dream-like figures fill his paintings: some displaying animal characteristics, others that seem frozen in positions of shame and fear- all against an unsettlingly Technicolor backdrop. Saddam is a well-established artist: a member of both the Iraqi and the Jordanian Plastic Artists Associations, and the author of numerous essays on art in various Middle Eastern publications. He has had solo exhibitions in Dubai and Amman, and won the 2008 Expert young artists’ awards at the Iraqi Plastic Artists Society.
$ 1500 mixed Meda on paper 100 x 70 cm
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Samer Kurdi Samer is a Jordanian painter and printmaker who started his artistic journey while studying in Boston in the early 90s. His artistic education includes stints at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Art Institute of Boston, and workshops with Marwan Qassab Bashi held at Darat Al Funun in Jordan in the early 2000s. Samer is known for his large, vivid scenes of everyday Amman life: its hillsides, streets and cafes. Thus, his work has been instrumental in the formation of a uniquely Jordanian identity in the Middle Eastern art world. His work has been exhibited in several countries including Jordan, the US, the UAE, and Tunisia.
$ 110 GiclĂŠe pRINT (2/100) 23
86 x 58 cm
$ 80 Giclée pRINT (3/100) 37 x 57 cm
The prints presented here were donated by the artist to “The Collateral Repair Project”, an organization that helps Syrian and Iraqi refugees based in the Hashemi Shemali neighbourhood of Amman. All proceeds from sales will go to them. For more information, to support them and learn more about their work, please see their website: www.collateralrepairproject.org.
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Shahad Daoud Shahad is a young Iraqi artist and designer, now based in Amman. She studied interior and graphic design at Amman Al-Ahlieh University, graduating in 2008. In February 2013 Shahad opened her studio-gallery in Jabal Amman as a space to display both her own work and that of other artists. Her style is largely abstract, employing a variety of mixed media to express herself.. She finds herself particularly drawn to the naturalistic palette of brown, blue and gold. She has taken part in a number of group and solo exhibitions in Jordan.
$ 400 mixed media on paper 25
100 x 70 cm
$ 400 mixed media on paper 24 x 33 cm
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Yazan Mesmar Yazan is a self-taught young artist who describes himself as an “art freak and a colours geek.� He began practicing as a hobby, honing his skills until he reached a professional level. His work draws inspiration from traditional illustration techniques and street art illustration, mixing modern creativity and the freedoms it allows with a more traditional, hand-crafted approach in order to infuse it with life. His main goal is that the work interacts on a personal level with the viewer.
$ 140 Acrylic on Canvas 40 x 25 cm 27
$ 650 Acrylic on Canvas 85 x 60 cm
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