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Gulf Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Promises are for never: Bashir Makhoul eyes pledges in Zawyeh Gallery show
Zawyeh Gallery is currently hosting The Promise, a solo exhibition by renowned Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul. To run till June 30, in The Promise Makhoul unveils his latest works, exploring themes of home, displacement and memory through visual narratives. The exhibition title encapsulates a poetic and ambiguous statement of intent — an assertion that is both an event and its upending. A promise is made and, inevitably, can be broken. The duality is at the heart of Makhoul's practice, where creation and fragmentation, completion and rupture, coexist. At the core of the exhibition is the recurring motif of the house, depicted in its most elemental form: a cube with a door and a window. The geometric structures, arranged in dense and chaotic formations, reflect the overcrowded conditions of refugee camps and marginalised communities. Despite their elegant colour palettes, the artworks reveal a stark contrast between aesthetic beauty and unsettling political realities. An olive tree in close-up. Featuring works in painting, electroplated sculptures, printmaking, handwoven wool and silk tapestries and mixed media works, the art explores identity, fragmentation, dispossession, and longing. Through layered symbols such as home, petals, and patterns, Makhoul examines the fragile balance between loss and hope, chaos and order, destruction and rebirth. Home for him is both a sanctuary and a site of loss. It is not only a place where one builds memories, but also a location where one loses them. Home therefore does not offer only security, but also gives birth to instability and loss, especially if home is a refugee camp. Makhoul explores his relationship with his homeland, examining its emotional and psychological impact. He works between lived reality and nostalgia, presence and displacement, permanence and impermanence. Weaving is just not a skill for him: it is also the reconstruction of memories while electroplated sculptures symbolise disruption. As a Palestinian who has spent most of his life in exile, the notion of home is therefore conflicted. The Palestinian experience of home under occupation is marked by the sense of belonging and also the haunting feel of uncertainty. Among the featured series is Fractured Oblivion, an extension of the artist's earlier Promise series. Scattered blossom petals — once symbols of unity — now encircle dark voids that echo bullet holes Makhoul photographed in Beirut in the 1990s. The colour hides pain. The war-torn surfaces evoke his family's exile during the Nakba, while the petals suggest healing and the voids, as the title implies, lead only to oblivion. The themes of rupture and continuity extend into the Skein series, where tangled threads symbolise exile and return. Works such as Drift and Density (3) explore the Palestinian experience of loss and perseverance, with Density (3) standing as a testament to a fragmented nation bound together by resilience and solidarity. Makhoul's latest experiments in electroplated 3D printing introduce an unexpected crystalline structure inside his house formations. The approach reaches its pinnacle in My Olive Tree, where geometric structures take on the spectral form of an ancient olive tree — a personal symbol for the artist, standing between two parcels of land he does not own. The olive tree, much like the Palestinian people, waits — embodying persistence and the inevitable fulfillment of the promise to return. The Promise offers a powerful meditation on identity, displacement, and resilience, and marks Makhoul's first solo exhibition in Dubai. He was born in 1963 in the village of Makhoul in the Galilee region of Palestine. The artist was only five years old when he and his nine siblings — four sisters and five brothers — lost their father, leaving his mother alone to raise them. He attended school till he was ten, and around the age of 13, began to supplement his schooling with paid work at a carpentry shop to contribute to the household income. It was his boss at this shop who discovered his artistic skills and passion for design; eighteen months after he began, Makhoul was named the manager of the workshop. Following secondary school, he also made violins designed for Arabic music and played them at weddings. In the early 1980s, he began to study fine arts at Haifa University, later relocating to the United Kingdom. In 2017, Makhoul became the first Palestinian Vice-Chancellor at the University for the Creative Arts, UK, cementing his central place in the art world of the Palestinian diaspora. Bashir Makhoul is a Palestinian artist. Exile has significantly impacted Palestinian art, forcing artists to grapple with displacement, identity, and the ongoing struggle for homeland. Palestinian artists have used their work to express the pain of loss, cultivate nostalgia for a lost homeland, and document the tragic experiences of their families and communities. Exile also has led to the development of new artistic mediums and styles, as artists adapt to changed circumstances. notes that the Palestinian experience of exile 'is a multifaceted tapestry woven with threads of longing and resistance. At its core lies the dichotomy between the tangible memories of those who were forced to leave their homeland by Israel's military forces and the inherited narratives passed down to subsequent generations. Throughout their diasporic journey, Palestinians have grappled with the challenge of preserving their heritage and resisting attempts to delegitimise their indigenous connection to the land ... diaspora, far from being a passive state of displacement, emerged as a locus of resistance and cultural resurgence. Artists and writers crafted narratives of resilience, depicting the indomitable spirit of a people determined to resist cultural assimilation and preserve their identity.'
Forbes
28-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Art Dubai became the fair collectors in the spot the next best thing, before everyone else does.
M.F. Husaain, That Obscure Object of Desire Nine They're some of the most glamorous events in the world, but the commercial art fair is in a tricky spot. In November last year, Endeavour, the owners of Frieze Art Fair, began looking for a potential buyer for the twenty two year old global event. The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting found that between 2019 and 2024, Art Basel VIP fair attendance nearly halved. Galleries exhibiting found the percentage of sales they make at Art Basel have dropped from 46% of yearly sales in 2018 to 29% in 2023. Art Dubai is somewhat of a maverick within this market. Its 2025 edition on the glamorous waterfront of Madinat Jumeirah saw thirty new galleries exhibiting and an increase in sales, with Ramallah and Dubai space Zawyeh Gallery selling two works by Palestinian artist Nabil Anani for $100,000-650,000 on the fair's preview day. Now in its eighteenth year, Art Dubai regulars respect the fair's commitment to young emerging artists who usually don't get to be front and center of a major art fair. Art Dubai has plans to elevate, with ex-Art Basel incoming Director Dunja Gottweis and Executive Director Curatorial Alexie Glass-Kantor, coming from Artspace, set to double down on regional talent and more frequent city-wide events. 'How can we properly commit to supporting artists in a region dedicated to reinvention?' asked BMW Head of Cultural Engagement Dr Thomas Girst on a panel he led at Art Dubai with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Stephanie Rosenthal and Azu Nwagbogu Driven by Art: Are Commissions and Co-Creations the Future? – a discussion on how patrons can support young global artists today. 'We see ourselves as enablers of art, here to support in tangible ways' Girst said. Obrist spoke about the importance of authentic relationships between brands, artists and institutions, with artists needing to ensure that they make sure corporate sponsorship is perfectly matched to their style of work – 'it's not about the individual, it's about the collective'. Nwagbogu described Art Dubai as exciting for its relative youth in the market and its offering of 'strong global talent' describing the fair as a discovering platform and a place to find the next global talent. From overlooked modern artists to emerging practices, here are five breakout names to keep tabs on from this year's Art Dubai. Saj Issa, Never Make a Wish in a Dry Well at Tabiri Art Space, Art Dubai 2025 Saj Issa Palestinian-American artist Saj Issa's Tabiri Art Space show Never Make a Wish in a Dry Well previewed her ceramic pieces that incorporate shards of 10th-century pottery fragments discovered near a former ceramics factory in Ramallah, Palestine. Issa describes ceramics as 'finding her', influencing her decision to not merely preserve her findings but bring them back to life in her own work. From melting shards into glazes or encasing them in glass, Issa comes closer to her Palestinian heritage, reclaiming these historical fragments into her contemporary work. Issa succeeds in highlighting the importance of preserving cultural heritage through her bold, hand thrown ceramics. Anwar Saeed, Flying Rug II, 2025 at Art Dubai Anwar Saeed Anwar Saeed's Flying Rug presents a satire of contemporary male and female relationships. Tapping into the nostalgia of childhood fairytales, Saeed creates a fantastical scene of a mismatched couple. Shown at the booth of London space Grosvenor Gallery, the artists' aim was to invite audiences to not only observe but engage with the artwork, enhancing its connection to themes of flight, freedom, and cultural identity. 'The image of flying Dari or a rug suggests an idealistic desire for power, speed and dominance' Saed says – 'unconnected with the ground, the man and woman are gazing in opposite directions.' M.F. Hussain, Untitled, Art Dubai 2025 M.F. Hussain The most talked about artists at Art Dubai weren't only young contemporary talent. M.F. Hussain, who worked in India and later Dubai, was one of the most talked about artists at this year's fair. A Life in Masterpieces at DAG gallery paid tribute to Hussain's often overlooked career, with a tightly curated edit of his bold, kinetic canvases showcasing his abstract approach to everyday scenes. While more could have been done to contextualize the artists work and life, such as political exile, his critiques of tradition, or the sometimes fraught reception of his work both in India and abroad, the show links the questions in his art to both the country he was from from, India, to the one he spent his adult years in, Dubai. Andy Warhol's BMW Art Car, painted in twenty eight minutes on show at Art Dubai 2025 Andy Warhol M.F. Hussain wasn't the only artist Art Dubai visitors rediscovered, the presentation of Andy Warhol's 1979 BMW Art Car gave a fresh perspective on the lore of the artist as the brand celebrate the Art Cars 50th anniversary with a worldwide tour throughout 2025. 'Warhol turned an object of beautiful design into a rolling sculpture. That's what makes it art!' says Dr Thomas Girst. Warhol is one of the most collected artists in the Emirates and the car offered collectors a fresh reframe the icon. Warhol's car is a rare, on-off technique used by the artist. 'He wanted to get rid of the hand and become a machine, hence silkscreens and other modes of creation' Girst says. 'Yet when confronted with an industrial design object, he starts painting within a twenty eight minute choreography moving around the M1 in a paintshop outside of Munich, turning the brush around, creating lines and signing his name onto the wet paint. It is still the BMW Art Car which performed best at Le Mans.' Shaikha Al Mazrou was a breakout talent from Art Dubai, her work Measuring Physicality of Void, ... More 2022, features her trademark reclaimed metal Shaikha Al Mazrou Shaikha Al Mazrou's presentation at Lawrie Shabibi saw her double down on her exploration of metal and form, transforming old scrap material into her own sculptural language. Her works at Alskeral Avenue stallwart Lawrie Shabibi saw the Emirati artist transform industrial materials into dynamic, organic forms that reimagine the purpose of refuse industrial waste. Al Mazrou draws inspiration from everyday objects, recontextualising them into abstract and geometric forms, asking viewers to consider the mundane and highlighting the potential for beauty in ordinary matter.
What's On
19-03-2025
- Entertainment
- What's On
Alserkal Art Week 2025: Welcome dissent with A Wild Stitch
No neat stitches at Alserkal Art Week… Alserkal Art Week is back in the new year – in great news for all the art enthusiasts, culture crawlers and fine philosophy fiends – and this year, the week-long programme invites you to lose yourself and discover a new meaning of rebellion with A Wild Stitch , the theme of this stint. Running from April 13 to 20, this edition comes as a challenger to singular perspectives, as always responding to the need of the hour and the region, and reaffirming it's role in sparking a flame of unabashed, bold conversation around the present. Singularity is a fallacy, but why? Why do we need perspectives of variety, of multiplicity, hybridity? Through this curation, take an alternate look at narratives that refuse to be neatly stitched into submission. The flagship exhibition The highlight of the week, the flagship exhibition of this edition is Vanishing Points debuting new works by Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi, presented for the first time at Concrete. Curated by Nada Raza, the exhibition is all about miniature art and showcases photography, video, painting, and site-specific installations by Qureshi. Qureshi is a leading figure from the acclaimed Lahore school of contemporary Indo-Persian miniature painting, renowned for his innovative reimagining of this classical form. He captures the layered cityscapes of South Asia, where Mughal and Sikh architecture merge with the post-industrial present, rejecting the singular, narrow gaze of European perspective, by collaborating with skilled practitioners. Public Art Commissions Curated by independent writer and curator Fatoş Üstek, this year's public art commissions across the Avenue include Between a Beach and Slope , inspired by Emirati artist Nujoom Alghanem's poem of the same name and Indian artist Shilpa Gupta's light-text sculpture in The Yard, Still They Know Not What I Dream , gives form to silence and resistance. The commissions will be accompanied by talks by the artists and curator, live block-printing workshops,and a film screening. Majlis Talks Curated by Stephanie Bailey, the Majlis Talks hosts a special edition of Crit Club, a performance project. Framed as a sports tournament, the talks invite participants into a site-specific arena to dialogue and debate on unrealistic questions and impossible positions—drawn from conversations within the UAE art scene. Gallery Exhibitions Alserkal Art Week brings together artists from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, with 16 galleries presenting exhibitions that confront histories of displacement, resilience, and identity. Some of these include Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons' I Am Soil. My Tears Are Water, Zawyeh Gallery's British-Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul's The Promise, and Ayyam Gallery showcasing Iraqi-Palestinian Sama Alshaibi's photographs, reconstructing Baghdad's shifting landscapes through LiDAR technology and archives, bodies and identity. Discover the rest of the programme here… Alserkal Art Week, Alserkal Avenue, Apr 13 to 20, @alserkalavenue Images: Supplied > Sign up for FREE to get exclusive updates that you are interested in
