Lawrie Shabibi is currently home to By the Movement of All Things, a compelling exhibition curated by Hamzeh Alfarahneh. Open until 6 January 2026, it brings together seven artists whose works explore abstraction as a site of movement, knowledge, gesture, and memory. With its title taken from French poet Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, the exhibition invites viewers into active engagement with the artworks through reflection on their own experiences rather than passive interpretation.
At the heart of the show is an exploration of Global Majority approaches to abstraction, drawing subtle connections between non-figurative practices in South Africa and the Middle East. Organised around what Alfarahneh describes as “structures of knowledge,” the exhibition examines how alternative systems of understanding beyond dominant Western frameworks can be expressed through gesture, lineage, and embodied memory. Here, abstraction becomes a living archive that holds traces of gesture, movement, and history, revealing how bodies and materials intersect across time and place.
The participating creatives include Pakistani artist Hamra Abbas, Syrian-American artist Diana Al-Hadid, and German-Iranian artist Timo Nasseri. Abbas, known for her sculptural work in marble, investigates form, surface, and luminosity. Her creations echo shifting landscapes and temporal rhythms, underlining an elemental connection between material and environment.
Al-Hadid’s sculptural constructions, which draw on architecture, mythology, and art history, navigate between solidity and fragmentation while shaping immersive, spatially complex forms. Meanwhile, Nasseri contributes minimalist steel artworks that emphasise geometry, proportion, and negative space. They bring a refined spatial intelligence to the exhibition’s dialogue on material and movement.
Also included are South African artists Igshaan Adams, James Webb, Bronwyn Katz, and Moshekwa Langa. Adams works across sculpture, installation, and textile; he transforms everyday materials into abstract compositions infused with memory, spirituality, and transformation. Webb employs sound, installation, and intervention to create immersive environments that challenge perception and redefine the experience of place.
Katz explores materiality through copper-coated steel, wire, and twine, producing sculptures that balance delicacy and resilience while engaging with natural textures and structural systems. Langa’s practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation; using materials such as charcoal, soil, and fabric, he constructs layered works that register movement, memory, and the passage of time.
Together, these artists articulate a shared gestural vocabulary that cuts across media and geography, positioning abstraction as a conduit for collective memory, technique, and spiritual knowledge. The exhibition places movement not just as a subject but as a method and encourages visitors to consider how histories are carried forward, transformed, and renewed through the subtle traces of gesture and motion.
To get more information about By the Movement of All Things, please go to its official web page.
You might also be interested in viewing Improvisations at Gallery Isabelle and Fahrelnissa and the Institutes: Towards a Sky, an online show at the Cultural Foundation.
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