Taymour Grahne Projects is currently holding Arranging Flowers, a solo exhibition by American artist and educator Gail Spaien, celebrated for her poetic and contemplative approach to still life. Marking the gallery’s inaugural presentation at its new space in Dubai, Arranging Flowers is accompanied by a text by independent curator and writer Hilary Schaffner and will remain open until 20 November 2025.
In her works on view, Spaien transforms familiar domestic rituals into meditative encounters with beauty and perception. Her recurring motifs (tables, vases, and floral arrangements) are reimagined through flattened perspectives and floating spatial planes, where interiors open seamlessly into landscapes. Each painting unfolds as a delicate balance between stillness and movement. It invites viewers to pause within moments where nature and the domestic quietly converge.
Inspired by the Japanese art of ikebana, Spaien arranges visual elements with a meditative precision, balancing harmony and emptiness. Art pieces such as Waypoints, Habitat, and Ginkgo Leaves exemplify her attention to structure, rhythm, and atmosphere. Potted plants and vessels appear at once grounded and untethered; they evoke sensations of transience and suspension. Through her use of flattened space and decorative motifs, Spaien transforms the familiar into the contemplative, suggesting that the home, often seen as a site of care and containment, can also be a space of wonder and transformation.
With Arranging Flowers, Spaien introduces her intimate visual language to audiences in the Middle East for the first time. The exhibition reflects on the act of arranging not only as an aesthetic gesture but as a way of being, an attempt to find harmony amid constant flux. Through her still lifes, the artist asks what it means to find presence and balance in an ever-shifting world, and how art might serve as a refuge and a quiet rebellion against impermanence.
About the artist
Gail Spaien (b. 1958, Hartford, Connecticut, USA), who resides in Maine, holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the University of Southern Maine. She has displayed her works in multiple exhibitions across the USA, such as Interior (Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME, 2022); Flowering Inside/Outside (Nancy Margolis Gallery, NY, 2019); Serenade (solo) (Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME, 2017); Impact (Art Museum, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 2017); and the 20th Anniversary Show (Museums of Old York, George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME, 2015), to name a few.
Spaien is a recipient of several residencies and awards, which include the Residency Award from the Ucross Foundation (2024), the Project Grant Award (Maine Arts Commission, 2016), and the Merit Award from the Crocker Art Museum (1990), among others. Her art pieces are part of various private and public collections, such as the Elie Khouri Collection (Dubai), University of New England (ME, USA), and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (NY, USA).
To learn more about Arranging Flowers, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting New Western Views (Preview) by Marwan Bassiouni.
