Latest news with #ArtboothGallery
Gulf Today
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Art of summer: Artbooth Gallery show captures spirit of season
Artbooth Gallery, a leading art space in the national capital, is hosting Summered, a group exhibition that brings together a constellation of artists whose expressive works span continents and sensibilities (July 21 – Sept. 7). The public can immerse themselves in a universe where summer turns into an inner season, a state of mind or a breath of inspiration that ties together nature, memory, and imagination. Soraya Abu Naba'a, Gilbert Halaby, Asaad Arabi, James Matthews, Habuba Farah, Noor Bahjat, Bruno Sfeir, Oussama Diab, Layal Khawly and Elias Naman, are the artists who create a dialogue through works that blend contrast, symbolism, vibrant forms, and sculpted silences. From the dreamlike and meticulous florals of Soraya Abu Naba'a to the introspective paintings of Gilbert Halaby, Summered reveals, through each work, a fragment of a personal world that opens itself to collective reflection. Asaad Arabi's composition Gate of dream. James Matthews, a visual artist and educator based in Abu Dhabi since 2007, brings to the exhibition a visual language shaped by international experience. Asaad Arabi offers lyrical cityscapes where colours dance like suspended musical notes, while Habuba Farah weaves geometric abstraction into a poetic modernity, rooted in sound and rhythm. Noor Bahjat presents surreal and densely narrative self-portraits, while Bruno Sfeir explores interior worlds with symbolic depth. Oussama Diab expresses displacement and memory with gentle irony and sharp cultural references. Layal Khawly, penultimately through architectural compositions, seeks unity between art and social engagement. Finally Elias Naman, a sculptor of silence, reveals raw, pure, and timeless emotion through hand-carved stone. Elias Naman's work titled Fragment of Humanity I. Soraya was born to a Palestinian father and a mother of Lebanese descent. She spent her childhood life in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Travelling has had a huge impact on her visual language and meeting people from different countries, ignited an interest in their life stories. Gilbert Halaby (b. 1979) is a self-taught, multi-disciplinary artist and renowned designer who was born in a village in Mount Lebanon. He is known for producing a wide variety of art and written work that spans paintings, sculptures, poems and letters. Born in Damascus (1941), Asaad Arabi, in different series throughout his lengthy career, has skilfully used composition and colour in harmony, creating unity between the different aspects of his work. In the defined colour blocks of his abstract works, viewers gradually discern figures, architectural forms and patterns, while in his figurative works, bodies are painted in hues that merge with their environments. James Matthews is a British artist known for various styles, including Impressionist and Modern landscapes and portrait sculpture. He also works with woodblock and mixed media prints, often incorporating themes of culture, environment and sustainability related to the UAE, particularly using date palm tree paper. Ousamma Diab's Man and shadow. Over the course of a lifelong creative journey, Habuba Farah (b. 1931) has established a distinctive artistic identity through dynamic abstract compositions that explore colour, geometry, and movement. Her style, is often described as 'Lyrical Geometric Abstraction'. 'I identify as a woman and artist of Arab descent,' she once said, reflecting on how her artistic practice embodies both her Brazilian upbringing and Arab heritage. She was born into a family of Lebanese immigrants who settled in Brazil in the early 20th century. Noor Bahjat is a surrealist self-portrait artist working in an expressionistic style with a primarily figurative subject matter. After a visit to the Philippines, her palette and visual narrative drastically changed, moving away from dark and static compositions towards illuminated backgrounds, incorporating elements of nature and water in her portraits. Bruno Sfeir is an Uruguayan-Lebanese painter, who, in his extensive career, has created works across various mediums, exploring a wide range of themes. His art has travelled around the globe; each piece reflects a deep internal process, rooted in meditation. Vertigo Skyline by Noor Bahjat. Due to his background as a stateless Palestinian, Oussama Diab has always been a refugee, including in his native country, Syria. His work reflects the questions relating to humanity and freedom, justice and injustice, violence and struggle, human suffering and loss. But despite having experienced war and loss first-hand, he has always been moved by compassion and by hope too – another feature he wants to express in his work. He is not primarily concerned with political issues, but with the principles of humanity. Layal Khawly is a Lebanese visual artist and painter. Khawly decided to use her art for the common good, allowing those who cannot express themselves to be represented through her, thus allowing nobody to truly ever feel alone. Without preparatory sketches or machinery, Elias Naman sculpts by hand, forging an unfiltered dialogue between artist and stone. His work explores themes of identity, spirituality and the human condition, working to capture fleeting emotions in enduring materials. Work titled Still life by Soraya Abu Naba'a. Summered is more than an ode to the blazing light of the season. It is a journey through the inner landscapes of being, an invitation to contemplate the world differently, in a time suspended between warmth, reflection, and creation. Together, the artists form an orchestra, each voice distinct, harmonised in shared pursuit: to render visible the unseen layers of the self, of memory, and of belonging. The works transcend aesthetics: they are testaments, heirlooms, and quiet revolutions, each piece a vessel of history, transformation, and vision. Summered is a moment of pause within movement, a season captured not in Fahrenheit, but in feeling. The works are the echoes of a summer lived in full colour, depth, and purpose.
Gulf Today
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Artbooth Gallery hosts solo show of Bruno Sfeir in national capital
Artbooth Gallery, located in the UAE capital, has inaugurated The Return to Essence, a solo exhibition showcasing the works of artist Bruno Sfeir (May 29 – July 13). The show explores a journey through imagination, memory, and abstraction. In the shifting lights of imagination and memory, Bruno Sfeir, a Lebanese-Uruguayan painter, is a singular voice in contemporary visual art — one whose work is perhaps as elusive as it is evocative. The artist gestures toward a body of work that resists piegonholing. His paintings flow freely between movements, influences, and inner visions. Though trained under disciples of the renowned Torres García workshop, Bruno has diverged from the Constructivist grid toward a more fluid and intuitive terrain. Geometry is present in his works, but it does not dictate creative terms and artistic conditions. Surrealist echoes also resound in the pieces, but never dominate. The compositions exist in a space of balance — a visual unity where rational structures intermingle with irrational forms, giving rise to an order that feels both intentional and instinctual. His work emerges as a subtle dance between the visible and the intangible, a profound exploration of the inner sensations that nourish human consciousness. Bruno captures and attempts to materialise the essence of inner experience, transforming it into compositions that radiate balance and harmony, though such expression is indeed difficult. Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires. Each stroke is an echo of his inner world, a window into a universe where order and serenity blend. His creative process is a journey in two directions: an immersion into his internal landscape and an interaction with the external world. Internally, his meditative practice, anchored in conscious respiration, sustains the creative dynamic. Externally, he imprints the canvas with the mark of his intuitions, each brushstroke reflecting the connection between his inner and outer worlds. Bruno's technical mastery and artistic training allow him to express himself with a refined, sophisticated, and subtle language. His distinctive voice has resonated across continents, leading to numerous exhibitions in international organisations like UNESCO in Paris, and cultural institutions such as the Museum of the Gaucho in Montevideo, the Renato Russo Cultural Center in Brasília, Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, and the Cervantes Institute in Museum of the Gaucho, Montevideo, Uruguay, is dedicated to preserving and showcasing the country's cultural and historical heritage. ('Gaucho' is a cowboy from the South American pampas). The Renato Russo Cultural Center is a cultural institution run by the Secretariat of Culture of the Federal District. It is a public cultural centre and agency located in Brazil's capital, Brasilia, in the Federal District. In the heart of the city of Buenos Aires is the Borges Cultural Center, an important cultural enterprise created by the Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit civil organisation. It was inaugurated in 1995 inside the Galerías Pacífico, a building from the close of the 19th century, declared a National Historical Monument. The Cervantes Institute was created in 1991 with the aim of promoting the teaching of the Spanish language and disseminating the culture of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries. Bruno Sfeir at work. Each venue, like each canvas, becomes a point of passage for Bruno's works — another place, where reality and imagination intertwine. Nowhere is this more evident than in his latest series, unveiled in the Abu Dhabi exhibition. Here, the Uruguayan countryside is reimagined — not as it is seen, but as it is felt. In Surreal Countryside Scene, a cow grazes in familiar fields, yet the proportions bend, the forms twist, and the scene is transformed into a mystery — an invitation to look again, and more deeply. Similarly, Crossing the Countryside 1 presents a rider on horseback traversing a terrain where the very ground seems to pulse with peculiar shapes, destabilising the boundary between perception and dream. At the heart of Bruno's work lies a desire not to reproduce reality, but to remake it — to create a coherence born not of fidelity to nature, but of fidelity to the painting itself. Each canvas becomes a living entity, evolving as it seeks its own truth. Speaking of his artistic process, he says: 'My paintings may begin with the observation of a concrete reality, but as I paint, that reality moves and shifts according to the needs of the composition.' It is this dynamic — the dialogue between order and invention — that gives his work its quiet, resonant power. His singular vision has not gone unnoticed. Over the years, he has received several distinctions, including an Honorable Mention at the National Salon for the 75th Anniversary of Teatro Maccio in San José, a recognition from the Bank of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and the Ministry of Tourism Award in Montevideo. The honours echo what his canvases already suggest: that here is an artist whose work transcends borders, geographical, stylistic, and perceptual. With this new collection, Bruno invites the viewer into a world where the boundaries between the real and the imagined dissolve like mist in open fields. The creations are not mere landscapes: they are dreamscapes, shaped by a vision which flows like water, and whose voice is entirely Bruno's own. Artbooth Gallery was founded by Roger El Khoury in 2019; it is dedicated to fostering cross-cultural artistic dialogue through a programme of exhibitions. With locations in Abu Dhabi and Seoul, it is a platform for both emerging and established artists, promoting innovative art from around the world, designed to provoke critical thought.
The National
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Weekly UAE museum and gallery guide: Group exhibition and last of the Ramadan activities
As we head into the final week of Ramadan, art centres and museums around the UAE are hosting their final activities and events in celebration of the holy month. Elsewhere, a group exhibition in Abu Dhabi explores the relationship between contemporary art and the contemporary artist. Here, The National highlights the events to get to before the Eid break kicks in. Artbooth Gallery in Abu Dhabi is showcasing Chromatic Dialogues, a group exhibition that explores the connections between contemporary artists and their styles. The exhibition features works by 14 artists, including Asaad Arabi, Bruno Sfeir, Gilbert Halaby and Hussein Baalbaki. Combining elements of abstraction, figuration and symbolism, the collection creates a lively dialogue between artistic viewpoints. Visitors can explore a variety of techniques and visual styles, offering insight into the broader themes shaping contemporary art. Curated to highlight both individual artistic expression and the shared themes that connect them, Chromatic Dialogues aims to showcase the ability of art to bridge cultural and personal narratives. Monday to Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday, 11am-3pm; until April 1; Abu Dhabi Jameel Art Centre in Dubai is set to host a late-night programme featuring a variety of interactive art and cultural activities. The event includes workshops, talks and performances open to all ages, with a focus on creative expression and cultural engagement. Emirati visual artist Rashid Almheiri will lead drop-in stations throughout the evening, offering activities such as storytelling-inspired artwork, collaborative drawing and meditative creative exercises. Henna artist Azra Khamissa will present contemporary henna designs on the roof terrace, while the independent public library project Bootleg Griot will provide a curated literary space. Workshops include zine-making, ma'amoul baking, Palestinian embroidery with Eman Alkhawaja, the founder of Tatreez Therapy, plus an eco-friendly soap-making session led by Rouba Shaath. Attendees can also participate in poetry performances, screen printing and guided exhibition tours. Sunday, from 9pm; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai As part of its Ramadan series, Dubai's Etihad Museum is hosting a workshop titled Tablescaping and Poetry, led by Palestinian food artist Sondos Azzam. Participants will engage in discussions on table arrangement focusing on composition, texture, colour and storytelling. They will then experiment with various materials to design their own tablescapes. The workshop aims to highlight the connection between aesthetics and language, encouraging participants to blend visual design with poetic expression. Friday, from 8.30pm; Etihad Museum, Dubai
