ArtSpace Gallery

HALIM KARIM - Witness from Baghdad

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:37:43 +0400

If you are in London, be sure to drop by the Opening Exhibition for Halim Karim at ARTSPACE LONDON tonight.

Venue - 7 Milner Street,

Time - 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm

ARTSPACE Dubai - Upcoming Exhibition by Mouneer Al Shaarani

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:47:39 +0400

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM EVERYONE AT ARTSPACE

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:32:05 +0400

Autumn Updates from ARTSPACE Dubai and London and 2013

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:45:50 +0400

Click here for detailed view of newsletter

Read about Artspace, the galleries and the opening of it’s London gallery in the below articles by...

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:40:41 +0400

Read about Artspace, the galleries and the opening of it’s London gallery in the below articles by Financial Times and BrownBook

Financial Times: The Power of Painting
By Peter Aspden (May 12, 2012)

BrownBook: Art in Spaces
By Celia Topping (May 14, 2012)

Visit Artspace London!

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:25:25 +0400

Artspace London has now opened it’s doors after a successful opening on the 9th of May 2012

A small preview...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:18:59 +0400

of our upcoming exhibition opening for Mohamed Abla - Monday 23 April 7pm at Artspace Gallery, Gate Village 3, DIFC.

Sneak peak of what you missed during Art Dubai 2012

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0400

Mohammed Abla 'My Family' Exhibition, brought to you by Artspace

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:00:12 +0400

Yousef Ahmad Exhibition March 7 2012

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:55:00 +0400

ARTSPACE is pleased to be showcasing an innovative selection of works by Qatari artist, Yousef Ahmad, at an exhibition taking place from March 7th until April 23rd at Artspace Gallery in Gate Village DIFC Inspired by the forms and hues of the flat desert landscape of his native Qatar and by Arabic calligraphy, his paintings are often collages or mixed media works, where form meets color and texture, derived from natural elements.

A Night Where Fashion Meets Art - Artspace Gallery & COPIA Collaboration

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:16:57 +0400

Dubai’s Renowned Artspace Gallery & COPIA Proudly Presents A Night Where Fashion Meets Art Showcasing Hussein Madi’s solo exhibition
& an exclusive first look at COPIA’s luxury lifestyle.

Dubai November 2011 - Artspace Gallery is pleased to be showcasing an innovative selection of works by the Lebanese artist Hussein Madi that is taking place from the 23rd of November to the 15th of December 2011. This exhibition is in collabor…ation with COPIA, a chance to get an exclusive first look at COPIA’s luxury brands.

Born in 1938 in Chebaa, Lebanon, he lived between Rome and Beirut from 1973-1986. In 1986 he decided to stay permanently in Beirut. His art has been viewed by thousands of people around the world at such venues as the British Museum, the Venice Biennale and Tokyo’s Ueno Museum.
Madi’s joyful experiments in color 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. Madi’s work focuses on both figures and more abstract decorative works. Madi is known particularly for his delightful paintings of women, which are supposed to represent the daily life of ordinary women in Lebanese culture and society. These are of women both in the home and at leisure, whether relaxing on the beach, in their home clothes, or talking with their friends. His more abstract works are an extension of this as he paints leaves and natural vegetation as symbolism of life, beauty and happiness.

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.”

To give you more insight on our collaboration with COPIA:
Established and based in Dubai, COPIA offers intimate access to influencers and high net worth individuals of the Middle East region. Through COPIA’s strong network and innate understanding of the region and its consumer trends, they are capable of introducing, connecting and positioning brands within the ‘lifestyle’ world. They ‘spot’ brands that have yet to enter / make it into the Middle East region and develop growth strategies to effectively build and expand their brand. They work to develop long-term strategies, where brand knowledge, creative sensibility, influencer networks, and brand integrity are at the core. Their strategies represent all the key elements and capture the essence of the brand whilst bearing in mind local market trends. They work on comprehensive plans to penetrate the target market and create top of mind positioning for our brands.

Exhibition opening
A cocktail reception will be held at Artspace, located in The Gate Village, DIFC, from 6:00 pm on the 23rd of November 2011.

Our latest exhibition opening October 19th - Syrian artist...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:12:00 +0400

Our latest exhibition opening October 19th - Syrian artist Monif Ajaj

Monif Ajaj’s portraits are generally inspired by his daily life in Damascus and his childhood in Al Jezireh. Men are playing with their rosaries, slouching on the floor eating nuts and engaging the viewer with a penetrating gaze. Highly dexterous in his drawing, his exclusively male and almost life-size portraits depict Syrian society in a satirical way and are reminiscent of the work of early 20^th century western artists, particularly Daumier.

In his recent work, influenced by internet, television and newspaper pictures which invaded the Syrian visual public and private space, Monif Ajaj presents street portraits including for the first time in his work, the presence of women. Mixing classical sanguine drawing with modern urban art as the spray used for graffiti, this large format new serie entitled “Mondaseen”* depicts the recent events in Syria.

*Arabic word meaning infiltrators used recently by the government to designate the protestators.

Adam Henein

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:24:03 +0400

ARTSPACE is excited to be participating at Marrakech Art Fair in 2 weeks time, from the 30th September - 3rd October. We’re bringing the work of three master artists of the Middle East to showcase on our stand - Hussein Madi, Adel El Siwi, and Adam Henein.

Sculptor Adam Henein was born in Egypt on March 31, 1929. Greatly influenced by the Pharoanic wonders of his homeland as a child, 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, 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.

Alaa Ismail

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:21:00 +0400

Iraqi born Alaa Ismail (1974) started practicing the art of calligraphy from a young age. He studied various artistic disciplines at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Baghdad, including decorative arts, Islamic architecture, glass painting and Islamic Art, graduating in 2003. Currently living in Damascus, Syria, Ismail has taught and lead many projects looking into the use of calligraphy within Arab art, as well as promoting the importance of classical Arab music. His paintings seek to use calligraphy in an expressive and gestural manner, displaying words of meaning and poetic significance. This marrying of bold textural strokes combined with Ismail’s love of the Arabic word, successfully presents calligraphy in a colorful layered contemporary style.

Ismail has participated in the 4^th Sharjah Calligraphy Biennale in 2010, shown as part of Iraqi Cultural Week in New York in 2009, and exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. In 2010 he won first prize at the Al Burda Awards for modern calligraphy, an award presented by the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Culture.

Photo

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:47:28 +0400

Omar El Nagdi

Omar El Nagdi

Omar El Nagdi

Hussein Madi

Hussein Madi

Hussein Madi

Alaa Ismail

Calligraphy Exhibition up for Ramadan, August 2011

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:24:00 +0400

A Ramadan Mubarak to you all!

Our new exhibition is up in the gallery. Featuring the works of artists Omar El Nagdi, Alaa Ismail, Hussein Madi and Kamal Boullata, the exhibition focuses on works of a calligraphic nature, which are produced in a contemporary modern way. On display from 1st August - end of September 2011.

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. An Egyptian symbolist and master of color, his paintings show a preoccupation with symbolic design, through the use of expressive textures, tonal contrast and a need to offer serious communication which is deeply translated. His works of the 1960’s and 70’s were especially based on the forms of Arabic calligraphy, whereby compositions are formed entirely on the repetition of the Arabic numeral ‘One’, also indistinguishable from the first letter of the alphabet ‘Alef’. Symbolizing the indivisible nature of the Divine together with incorporating Islamic traditions through composition, he is able to visually emphasize this concept. In this way, Nagdi’s works go beyond mere decoration, so as to radiate a mixture of humanist and mystic sensibilities. His latest works use calligraphy in a contemporary style repeating sequential rhythms of Arabic letters in black and white and gold leaf.

He has 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. 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 prizes 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.

Kamal Boullata was born in 1942 in Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the Academy of Rome and the Corcoran Art Museum School in Washington DC. His works are primarily abstract and geometric in style, focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity, and the utilization of forms to represent separation from the homeland. He recalls as a small boy sitting for hours in front of the Dome of the Rock, and meticulously sketching its patterns and calligraphic engravings. These patterns still echo endlessly throughout his work - “I keep reminding myself that Jerusalem is not behind me, it is constantly ahead of me.” His writings on Islamic and modern Arab art and culture have appeared in various academic journals and anthologies. His most recent books include Belonging and Globalization: Critical Essays on Contemporary Art and Culture (editor) and Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present. In 1993 he received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship to conduct research on Islamic art in Morocco and in 2001 he was the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant to research Post-Byzantine art in Palestine. After living for 25 years in the USA, he moved to France in 1997.

Public collections containing his work include the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; British Museum, London; Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman; Patronato de la Alhambra, Granada; Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah; New York Public Library, New York; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; Bibliothèque Louis Notari, Monaco; UNESCO, Paris; Collection of Modern Arab Art Museum, Doha; Arab Bank, Amman and the World Bank, Washington, DC.

Born in 1938 in Chebaa Lebanon, Hussein Madi, painter, sculptor and printmaker, is considered amongst the Arab world’s foremost artists. 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.”

Artspace coming to Marrakech Art Fair

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:22:00 +0400

ARTSPACE Gallery will be coming to Marrakech Art Fair in October! From the 31st September to 3rd October the Moroccan city of Marrakech will be bringing the second edition of its art fair, along with some fifty other international galleries, following on from the success of its launch last year. Artspace is planning to bring the works of renown Middle Eastern masters Adel El Siwi, Hussein Madi, and Adam Henein to the fair.

Check out the fairs website for more http://www.marrakechartfair.com/maf/en.html

In the mean time we are also busy preparing for both our upcoming August Calligraphy exhibition and our solo show for Syrian artist Monif Ajaj in October (once we’re back from Marrakech Art Fair!). Lots of things happening so watch this space for more details as well as images soon to come.

Photo

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:51:28 +0400

Omar El Nagdi

Hussein Madi

Joe Kesrouani

Islam Zaher

Adel El Siwi

Kamal Boullata

Various artists Summer exhibition, June-July 2011

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:46:20 +0400

Hey everyone,

Its been a while, but we just wanted to let you know of our latest exhibition in the gallery, showcasing a varied selection by modern and contemporary Middle Eastern artists, in what is to be an ongoing and rotating summer collection, up until August 2011. To give you an idea of what we have on display at the moment, we have works by Kamal Boullata, Joe Kesrouani, Hussein Madi, Omar El-Nagdi, Islam Zaher, and Adel El Siwi.

Kamal Boullata was born in 1942 in Jerusalem. His works are primarily abstract and geometric in style, focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity, and the utilization of forms to represent separation from the homeland. He recalls as a small boy sitting for hours in front of the Dome of the Rock, and meticulously sketching its patterns and calligraphic engravings. These patterns still echo endlessly throughout his work - “I keep reminding myself that Jerusalem is not behind me, it is constantly ahead of me.” His writings on Islamic and modern Arab art and culture have appeared in various academic journals and anthologies. In 1993 he received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship to conduct research on Islamic art in Morocco and in 2001 he was the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant to research Post-Byzantine art in Palestine. After living for 25 years in the USA, he moved to France in 1997.

Public collections containing his work include the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; British Museum, London; Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah; New York Public Library, New York; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; UNESCO, Paris; Collection of Modern Arab Art Museum, Doha; Arab Bank, Amman and the World Bank, Washington, DC.

Born in Lebanon in 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.

Kesrouani’s paintings and photographs represent two levels of lived experience. His paintings, 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 its seems with pleasure and danger alike, where everything goes and nothing is exactly as it seems.

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.

Islam Zaher is an Egyptian artist born in Giza in 1972. He graduated from the painting department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Helwan University in 1994. He was able to exhibit at a number of local exhibitions before receiving a Scholarship in painting studies from the Ministry of Culture in 1996. Since then his work has been shown in various Egyptian galleries, as well as being given the chance to participate in Sharjah’s Egyptian Cultural Week in 2005.

Zaher’s latest body of work investigates the concept of happiness. His depictions of robust belly dancers aim to portray the unspoken hidden side of Egyptian society; “I intended to express the contradiction between inner and outer, between sexuality that has to be kept hidden and what you can show to the world,” says Zaher. The motion of the dancers is highlighted by the bright colors of brushstrokes. He goes on to say “It is not forbidden to show a belly dancer, it is no different than a woman in a niqab. It is an acceptable attire in a certain context,” thus highlighting the contrast between traditional and universal opinions. Zaher aims to question the role of happiness in his works by bringing to attention perceptions within different societies, as well as the role literature plays in attaining ones intuitive notion of happiness.

Born in 1952 Egyptian painter Adel El Siwi had his first major show at the Cairo Atelier in 1985. Since then he has participated in solo and group exhibitions as far across the globe as South America. He is now based in Cairo and has exhibited a number of times with the gallery, as well as being represented by Artspace at 2010’s Art Dubai.

Known for his treatment of the human figure 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 a considerable time, El Siwi strongly believed that the more limited the means the stronger the potential of the expression, thus refusing to use any other medium other than painting on paper or canvas. His work in the 1997’s Venice Biennale’s exhibition Modernity’s and Memories: Recent Works from the Islamic World, a room installation entitled The Face and Beyond, explores the new genre of conceptual art through painting.

Introducing… NOOSH. A passionately pretty new fashion...

Thu, 26 May 2011 10:35:02 +0400

Introducing… NOOSH. A passionately pretty new fashion label, founded by two sisters in Dubai - Alia and Noora.

You are invited to be amongst the first to take a look… attached is your official invitation to the NOOSH Sneak Peak event being held on Sunday May 29th, at ArtSpace Gallery in DIFC (7pm - 9.30pm).

The event will feature a live photo shoot showcasing our pre-fall collection and a very good reason for a little indulgence.

Please stop by www.nooshcouture.com to take a look and to get to know NOOSH better. Oh, and of course to RSVP.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

PS Join NOOSH on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Noosh/186412194743611