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The National
3 days ago
- The National
Review: Emirati artist Omar Al Gurg makes an exhibition of his Kilimanjaro expedition
Mountains can measure an individual. Climbing one is a test of endurance, physical and psychological. Muscles cramp, breathing become more difficult and every step becomes an exercise in motivation and gumption. Foresight is also a prerequisite. Awareness of the altitude and weather ahead, rationing supplies and knowing where to rest and for how long are all vital. One wrong move or decision can be catastrophic, if not fatal. But Omar Al Gurg 's exhibition Everyman's Mountain is not so much a story about man against nature. His photographs do document his experiences in hiking Mount Kilimanjaro – a six-day trek in 2021 – but it is more nuanced than that. The exhibition, running at Lawrie Shabibi until September, is a love letter to the mountain in Tanzania, its scale and biodiversity, as well as its human presence, which, as Al Gurg says in the exhibition's literature, feels simultaneously impactful and insignificant. Mount Kilimanjaro is a benchmark for many climbers. It is high enough to be challenging but still accessible, as it doesn't need any technical skills or ropes. It isn't as brisk a climb as Mount Fuji nor as arduous as the peaks in Nepal or the K2 that looms between Pakistan and China. Mount Kilimanjaro stands in the middle of a climber's ambition, leaning towards the more accessible-side of the spectrum. It is perhaps from this characteristic that the exhibition draws its title: Everyman's Mountain. Al Gurg's photographs communicate the scale, might and mystery of Kilimanjaro well, especially to those who have never braved Africa's highest mountain. Their composition also highlights Al Gurg's keen sensibilities as a photographer, even though the Emirati artist is perhaps best known for his work as a designer and founder of the studio Modu Method. In one photograph, colossal tree trunks, wrapped in velvety lichen, curve centre-frame, serving as an arched doorway to Kilimajaro's depth, its green wilderness emerging from an eternal mist. In another, Al Gurg tilts his lens upwards, showing how the endlessness extends vertically as well. Al Gurg also spotlights the porters who support the mountain's hikers, often outnumbering them. There are photographs that show them hoisting large satchel bags on their backs and over their heads. Another photograph captures the silhouette of a man through the sheer tent and is another point towards Al Gurg's tableaux-esque framing. These examples are particularly riveting in that they highlight the human activity on the mountain, showing the place of our species within its ecosystem. There is also a subtext to consider. Between the scars of forest fires and the shrinking ice caps of the mountain, Al Gurg's images prod us to reckon with the more adverse sides of the human impact on the mountain. The photographs convey a stark desolation when seen beside the more lush shots of the mountain. The works are materially interesting as well. Printed on cotton rag and pinned framelessly to the walls, the photographs impart a texture and organic quality that well compliments what they depict. Al Gurg's fascination with Mount Kilimanjaro and its symbolism does not wrap up with Everyman's Mountain. The artist is only 'marking the beginning' of his drive to document its changing landscape, the exhibition's literature reads. 'Everyman's Mountainis not about conquest but about process: the act of seeing, appreciating and bearing witness,' it says. The ethos is evident in the works within the exhibition, communicating a perspective of reverence towards the mountain, while also gently alluding to our part in protecting its grandeur.
Gulf Today
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Western views, Eastern eyes: Lensman Marwan Bassiouni soon at Lawrie Shabibi
Lawrie Shabibi is presenting New Western Views (Preview), the first solo exhibition in the region of Marwan Bassiouni, opening September 18. Featuring photographs taken between 2018 and 2022 from inside mosques across the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, the exhibition offers a first look at Bassiouni's ongoing international project. The works reframe landscape photography through the lens of Muslim presence in the contemporary West. Each image centres on a window — an aperture into the outside world, so to say, only rarely found in purpose-built mosques. Through the portals, one can glimpse familiar Western landscapes: traffic junctions, supermarkets, apartment blocks and sports fields, among others. But the views are not neutral. They are framed by interiors shaped by Islamic visual culture such as patterned tiles, rugs, wooden minbars, and other architectural elements drawn from the diverse communities constructing mosques in the West. New British Views #06, England. Originating from places such as Bosnia, Lebanon, Turkey, Pakistan, India, Morocco, and Indonesia, these communities sometimes also transform everyday suburban spaces into makeshift prayer rooms. The result is distinctly Western scenes, viewed through distinctly Islamic frames. The works on view are large in scale, composed with a deliberate attention to balance and spatial clarity. While photographic in medium, they depart from traditional documentary approaches. Each image is constructed with precise control over lighting, capturing both interior and exterior spaces inside a single frame. The careful calibration helps preserve architectural and atmospheric detail, resulting in compositions that are immersive. The photographs are not contrasts for their own sake. They project a visual and cultural life shaped by migration, adaptation, and inherited memory. Many of the mosques occupy anonymous or repurposed structures, often former shops, garages, or residential units, revealing how Muslim communities, particularly of the second and third-generations, have embedded their practices in the anonymous spaces of everyday Western life. New Dutch Views #10, The Netherlands. The decorative elements often appear provisional, improvised, or partial, and are far from the monumental forms of classical Islamic architecture. But they are no less resonant for this. It is architecture not as spectacle, but as orientation. New Western Views pushes back against the long history of Orientalist image making, which has traditionally cast the Islamic world as distant, exotic, and other. Here, Bassiouni reverses that gaze. The landscape is no longer a backdrop for conquest, curiosity, romanticisation or exotification: it is simply what exists outside a mosque window. Thus the work avoids the familiar tropes of both victimhood and spectacle. It does not ask for empathy, nor does it offer a critique in the conventional sense. It only operates through presence, through the simple but loaded act of looking out. The photographs are composed with precision, but they are not artificial. Natural light, careful exposure, and a documentary sensibility, allow each interior and exterior to coexist without jarring. The result is not a blending of worlds, but a visual articulation of how they are held together, sometimes comfortably, sometimes awkwardly, but always on their own terms. New Western Views opens up a critical space within both landscape photography and contemporary art. It invites viewers to consider who gets to define the visual language of a place, and how diasporic identities are expressed not through spectacle alone, but also through the quiet architecture of daily life. It is not about visibility imposed from outside, but self-definition from within. New Swiss Views #38, Switzerland. Marwan Bassiouni (b. 1985, Morges, Switzerland) is a Swiss-Egyptian-American artist and photographer, currently based in the Netherlands. His work explores the intersection of Islamic identity and Western culture, often through contemplative, large-scale photographic installations. He holds a BA in photography from The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) and a photographer CFC from the Photography School of Vevey (CEPV). His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Photography Museum of The Hague, Netherlands (2019); Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland (2023); International Center of Photography, New York, USA (2024); Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, Switzerland (2019); Museum Schloss Moyland, Germany (2023); Shanghai Center of Photography, China (2022); Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece (2019); Festival Circulation(s), Paris, France (2020) and Z33, Hasselt, Belgium (2022), among others. Bassiouni's work is included in international private and permanent collections of institutions such as the Kunsthaus of Zurich (Switzerland), Kunstmuseum Bern (Switzerland), the Netherlands Photo Museum, Kunstmuseum Den Haag (Netherlands) and the International Center of Photography in New York (USA). He is the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Student Grant, the Harry Pennings Prize, the Prix Circulation(s)-Fujifilm and several other awards and nominations. His book, New Dutch Views, was a finalist for the Aperture First Book Award at Paris Photo. Since 2020, his work has been supported by the Mondriaan Funds and awarded grants from the Mondriaan Funds in 2020, 2022 and 2024. Marwan Bassiouni looks through a window. Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery housed in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue. It supports the long-term development of the careers of young international contemporary artists, with a focus on those from the Middle East and North Africa. The gallery also organises art historical exhibitions working with an older generation of artists from the region. Liaising with curators, institutions, museums and collectors, the gallery has successfully introduced international artists to the region, at the same time presenting Middle Eastern artists to the international contemporary art community. By holding a regular programme of exhibitions, screenings and talks, publishing catalogues and participating in international art fairs, Lawrie Shabibi has been a forerunner in the development of the contemporary art scene in Dubai.
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Vogue Arabia
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue Arabia
Inside Asmaa Al-Shabibi's Dubai Home: A Personal Tour of Regional and Diasporic Art
This family painting is one of the tens of artworks that are elegantly distributed in the gallerist's modern villa, where the majority of the displayed artists are affiliated with Lawrie Shabibi Gallery. The talents include emerging Arab names such as Palestinian architect-artist Dima Srouji, Emirati sculptor Shaikha Al Mazrou, and Malaysian-Palestinian artist Mandy El-Sayegh, as well as established artists, such as Lebanese mixed-media artist Nabil Nahas. 'We're interested in artists who work with material, social and political ideas but not in a very obvious way, rather in a much more subtle way,' says Al-Shabibi. A major artist that Al-Shabibi represents is the Emirati painter and sculptor Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, who represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The colourful painting is Ibrahim's take on an aerial view of roads and trees, atypically expressed through bold geometric symbols. Elsewhere, in the living room of the house hangs a fiery, orange and yellow toned painting by the late Moroccan pioneer Mohammed Melehi, who famously filled his canvases with waves, inspired by Berber jewellery and crafts. 'It's such a heart-opener. It's like the sun is emerging from your wall. It gives me joy every day I look at it,' says Al-Shabibi about the work, which was produced during the Covid-19 pandemic when Melehi sadly passed away. Standing opposite Melehi's work is a more sombre yet nevertheless charged painting by the Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani. This charcoal artwork was the first major piece Al-Shabibi purchased back in 2007. 'I could never not live with this painting. I could never sell it… It's violent but it's also beautiful,' comments Al-Shabibi. A large work, featuring scattered figurative elements, it depicts an explosive moment of impact, based on the political chaos that unfolded in Iraq nearly twenty years ago. Politics and war are indeed common themes quietly sensed through some of the artworks, reminding us again of one of the key roles of an artist: Reflecting the times we live in. 'Some people say, 'all art is political,' and I think that's right,' says Al-Shabibi. 'I think art could give meaning to what's going on around us. Artists, from their own perspective, are telling a story of what we're seeing.'
