Maraya Art Centre presents Between Sunrise and Sunset, an installation by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, one of the UAE’s most respected experimental artists. On display until 10 August 2025, the work reflects on time, memory, and the shifting energies of the natural world. The installation was commissioned for the UAE Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale and has been reconfigured for Maraya’s second-floor gallery space in collaboration with curator Cima Azzam and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery.
Between Sunrise and Sunset draws on Ibrahim’s relationship with the landscape of Khor Fakkan, his hometown. Growing up surrounded by the Hajar Mountains, he witnessed sunrises over the Indian Ocean, but not sunsets: a phenomenon obscured by the rocky terrain. This early memory forms the conceptual heart of the artwork, which meditates on what is seen and unseen, known and longed for. It speaks to personal geography and a broader emotional experience of passage, transition, and the desire to comprehend the full arc of a day.
The installation comprises 128 hand-sculpted forms made using papier-mâché and organic materials (earth, sand, tea, coffee, tobacco, and leaves). Biomorphic and often anthropomorphic, the sculptures suggest bodies, trees, or ancient artefacts, arranged directly on the floor in a gradient of colour. From vivid yellows, reds, and greens to a muted palette of blacks and whites, the sequence evokes the progression of daylight from dawn to dusk, translating the changing light into a physical, walkable landscape.
Unlike its display in Venice, where the sculptures rested on a platform, the Sharjah presentation places them directly on the gallery floor. Viewers are invited to move among the forms and experience the installation as a shifting terrain where time becomes tangible and the boundaries between human and natural forms blur.
About the artist
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim (b. 1962), who lives and works in Khor Fakkan, obtained a degree in psychology from the Al Ain University (UAE) in 1986. He is one of the members of the Five, a group of trailblazing conceptual Emirati artists that also includes the late Hassan Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, Mohammed Kazem, and Hussain Sharif. Since 1986, Ibrahim has been a member of the Emirates Fine Art Society (Sharjah).
He has presented his works in numerous exhibitions, including Unwritten, Unspoken & Told, a solo show at Dubai Calligraphy Biennale (Foundry Downtown, Dubai, 2023); A Return to the Ground (Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Tokyo, Japan, 2023); Desert X Al Ula (Al Ula, KSA, 2020); Trans Indian Ocean Artist Exchange (Kochi Murzi Biennale, India, 2016); and UAE Pavilion (Expo Zaragoza, Spain, 2008), among many others. Ibrahim’s art pieces are part of the collections of the British Museum (London, UK), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Kunstcentrum Sittard (Netherlands), and Sharjah Art Foundation, to name a few.
To learn more about Between Sunrise and Sunset, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
While at Maraya Art Centre, you may also be interested in visiting Nadia Saikali and Her Contemporaries. In addition, we recommend that you view the Totem group exhibition at Khawla Art Gallery.
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