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The shine and purr of gushing international press emerging from Dubai can muffle the questionable quality of some of the region's art. But shift through the region's glittering offerings and there are some genuine treasures. These five artists exhibiting or based in Dubai are real gold.
Hilda Hiary, 'HP 0720', 2007
120 x 120 cm
HILDA HIARY
Pared down to the purity of paint, color and form, abstract art seems like a universal creative language. But Middle Eastern artists are proving themselves to be poets of abstraction. Along with a more established generation of abstract artists such as Qatari artist Yousef Ahmed, Egptian painter Ahmed Moustafa and Iraqi artist Shaker Hasan, Hilda Hiary has had paintings collected by Queen Rania and Queen Nour, along with members of the Italian Parliament and significant museum curators. The thirty-nine year old Jordanian-born and Dubai-based artist's lush, earthy hued paintings were described by critic Zain Masud in Alef magazine as being "modernist Petri-dish experiments, where yet broad, expansive themes can be discerned in even her most abstract images." But Hiary maintains that while her abstraction might encompass broad and ethereal themes, her roots are firmly in the region where she is represented by Dubai's XVA gallery. "I believe abstract art originally did not originate from the West, " she asserts. "Even at the beginning of Islamic art, you can that abstraction was a clear component. But what is really interesting in Middle Eastern art right now, is that we have many different schools and trends, all gaining attention at once."
Nadine Kanso
NADINE KANSO
It's no surprise that in Dubai, a city proudly home to some 202 nationalities, some of the most exciting artists are working in collage. Among them is Lebanese artist Nadine Kanso, whose exhibitions with Dubai's B21 Gallery vividly convey the insights an artist can achieve by cherry-picking compelling images and coordinating them into telling compositions. "I work a lot on socio-political messages, such as combining fashion and a photo of less fortunate people and someone like G.W Bush," Kanso explains. "I find it fascinating to combine all of this and make it subtle and interesting." In "Rewind Ya Zaman," her second solo show at B21, Kanso presented 20 multi-layered photo assemblages juxtaposing contemporary newspaper clippings, photo portraits and mementos of icons from Arab nationalist movements of the forties, fifties, and sixties. In her mostly monochromatic montages, the faces of revered Palestinian politician George Habash, beloved Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and King Mohammed V overlap with products from cosmetic ads, models in shiny red cars and slogans such as, "God did not intend religion to be an exercise club." The vibrant and varied results are a reminder that Middle Eastern identity is a rich potpourri of Pop culture, heritage and diversity. "Collage is a special form of art, especially if it is done in a funky way, where it is loud and bold," says Kanso. "So people who are interested in it are themselves creative and bold."
Hayv Kahraman, 'Chained Women', 2007
HAYV KAHRAMAN
"Visual art is always important anywhere in the world, but especially in the Middle East," explains Hayv Kahraman, whose delicately elegant graphic drawings present troubling and painful subject matter with compelling grace and beauty. The twenty-seven year old Iraqi artist, who shows with Dubai's The Third Line gallery, gathers inspiration from traditional Japanese prints, art nouveau, Persian miniature painting and fashion imagery. Describing her references, she says, "One of my major inspirations is avant-garde fashion photography. And I try to be 'current' with the designs etc. My pieces may have an ancient or historical background, but I like to have them be related to today, with the usage and implementations from contemporary art and design." While artists such as Laylah Ali, Marcel Dzama and Amy Cutler use fantasy and disarmingly charming drawings to express complicated, harsh real-world realities, Kahraman's illustrations turn tough issues and specific aspects of Middle Eastern identity into accessible and seductive fairy-tale imagery. And though Kahraman's images appear as languidly lovely as the best fashion illustrations, she never trivializes her subject matter. Instead, finding the perfect balance between a light look and heavy content is central to her creative objectives. As she observes, "Art is a breath of fresh air considering the hardships going on in the area. It's where people enter a different world, experiencing an aesthetic sensation that is indescribable."
Laleh Khorramian in her studio
LALEH KHORRAMIAN
Laleh Khorramian elegantly and intelligently revitalizes the poignant poetics of the Persian cultural tradition. Ironically, the Tehran-born and New York-based artist's work accomplishes this by embodying the lush lyrical, sensual and visual history of her homeland, but blending it with references to Western art history, opera, pop culture, Disney and her personal experiences. In her jewel-toned monoprints, animation series, paintings and drawings, costumed figures emerge from densely detailed fluid patterns and form compelling narratives, recalling disparate cultures and cultural traditions. Although she is represented by The Third Line, one of the Middle East's foremost tastemaker exhibition spaces, in addition to New York's highly regarded Salon 94 gallery, Khorramian says, "I don't think of myself as fitting in with the Middle Eastern art scene." Khorramian explains by email from her Brooklyn studio, "My work is not overtly about political topics, regional issues or my issues with being Middle Eastern. I don't even know how to directly address things like that, even if they are a part of my concerns. And they certainly are." Instead of finely combing the fibers of her cultural fabric, Khorramian is aiming to address larger, universal issues in her art. In her video "I Without End" a couple, carved out of orange peels, enage in a heated romance, as their fragile, organic skin visibly grows still and old. "I think my work is about broader events and the universal forces of love, death and creation. My art touches on stuff like that, which can be galactic or can be vital forces within our own lives. I think this is what people are relating to in my art."
Youssef Nabil, 'Funfair, Self portrait, Paris', 2005
Hand painted silver gelatin print, 26 x 39 cm
YOUSSEF NABIL
Gold is standard in the Middle East, where glamour always glitters. And the most luxurious and seductive aspects of gold are demonstrated by Egyptian-born and New York-based photographer Youssef Nabil's hand-painted images of old film-star glamour. Nabil, who has shot Tracey Emin, Nan Goldin, David Lynch, Louise Bourgeois and Kate Moss, often bathes his subjects in buttery gold light and thereby declares his work as a product of the region, where the sun's golden rays and the peoples' taste for gold define the culture's look. In his kick-off show for The Third Line's new Doha space, Nabil showed sultry beauties poising like bygone Egyptian film stars. As Tracey Emin wrote in a 2007 catalogue essay on his work, "the photos are very beautiful, evocative and in the most old-fashioned kind of way, they are camp. Youssef sees the world in a truly singular way, and I find that very beautiful."
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ANA FINEL HONIGMAN is a critic, PhD candidate in art history at Oxford University and Senior London Correspondent for the Saatchi Gallery's online magazine. She is Style.com's Arts correspondent, Arts Editor of Alef, a Berlin correspondent for asmallworld.net and contributes regularly to such publications as Artforum.com, Art in America,TANK, Dazed & Confused, Sleek and British Vogue. |
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| Published on 27-08-2008 |
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