CURATION
WHAT LIES BENEATH COLOUR
Hafez Gallery , January 2023
What lies beneath colour is the first large-scale retrospective of the work by Saudi Arabian artist Dr. Sami Al Marzoogi. The exhibition brings together more than 150 drawings and paintings the self-taught artist, who has a background in Radiology, produced between 1986 and 2022. While formally diverse, Al Marzoogi’s prolific oeuvre reveals the artist’s decades-long quest for uncovering the transformational potential of colour and line through an expressive visual language that resides at the borderline between figuration and abstraction.
Throughout the exhibition, realistic and abstract-looking landscape views, deconstructed human figures, intricate geometric patterns, organic motifs, and fluid colour explorations rendered in ink, watercolours, acrylics, pastels, pencil colours, and polychromes bring forth the artist’s keen sensibility, drawing skills, and ability to create abstractions of what surrounds him. While escaping all labels and remaining true to his own creative path that started later on in his life, Al Marzoogi’s works take the viewer through the artist’s introspective life journey, one in which he has unearthed the many emotions of colour.
HURRIYAT JEDDAH
Hafez Gallery , November 2022
The Mermaids of Jeddah series expands on Amira Nazer’s exploration of material by exploring the tension, freedom, beauty, and constraint present in Jeddawi women’s lives. She describes the mermaid metaphor as a duality of existence: the mermaid calibrates her existence according to her physical surroundings. Much like the experience of a mermaid, the Jeddawi woman is versatile and adaptable in her own environment.
This intimate exhibition captures various presentations of a covered body within a range of natural environ- ments: those experienced by both the mermaid and the native Jeddah woman. Each image presents the weight of the abaya, the fluidity of the garment, and its relationship with nature while acknowledging contrast- ing feelings around its accompanying comforts and constrictions.
To bring the metaphor to life, the garment each woman chose and how she used it to cover her body was left to the freedom of the model. Amira used this to contextualise individual experiences within the mermaid’s narrative and maintain each subject’s authenticity.”
MAPPING HOME
Shara Art Fair , November 2020
Mapping Home is inspired by the fragile layers of our relationship with space in a visually geographic form. The work does not have nationalistic agendas and represents a metaphorical meeting point that locals and settlers can call home. Given the circumstances of the past year, the longing to be home grows more profound, and the feeling of displacement has become more familiar. This is how Mapping Home was born.
This concept is represented in textile art and depicts the authentic charm and organic connectivity between the districts of a city.
It explores the idea of a home being both a physical and metaphorical place and the relationship between our birthplace and the place we call home. This evokes complex emotions such as displacement, migration, home, identity, birth, and longing and questions the transparent contradiction between longing for permanence whilst actively seeking freedom.
The map is marked with the locations of artists Shaima Shamsi and Alaa Balky’s homes to represent the human connection to home. An excerpt of the poem Bury, written by Shaima, is incorporated into the design. ‘I was born inside you; the atoms that belong to you belong to me too. This integration of language represents the importance of the home concept, no matter what or how the home may look.
Featured Artists: Alaa Balky • Shaima Shamsi • Mashal Alsaei
BURY
I was born inside you; the atoms that belong to you belong to me too.
I was born inside you; the atoms that belong to you no longer belong to me too.
I was born inside you, but now I long for you.
-Shaima Shamsi
THE VIEWING ROOM
Athr Gallery, February 2020
The Viewing Room is an initiative to shed light on Athr Gallery’s established artists with the intent to bring back the art of collecting. Collectors recognize the value that such vibrant artists bring to communities, and they are in a position to ignite interest and add diversity to their cultural awareness. Art collectors often shape contemporary art history because of their unique decisions and thoughtful connections with other art enthusiasts and market players.
This exhibition visually highlights work by established artists who have created an extensive body of independent work with a strong cultural and social narrative. The artworks selected for the show come from various perspectives and individual journeys of self-expression and artistic growth. The featured artists are considered key players in the evolution of the contemporary art scene in Saudi Arabia.
This exhibition intends to educate the viewer on the importance of supporting artists and recognizing the value of artists’ expression, as well as understanding the historical relevance it carries.
Featured Artists: Ahmed Mater • Arwa AlNeami • Danish AlSaleh • Dana Awartani • Mohamed Monasieer • Aya Haidar • Mohamed Abdel Rasoul
• Hazem Harb • Saddek Wasil • Ayman Yossri Daydaban • Noha Alsharief
