The ArtBooth gallery in Abu Dhabi is holding Empty Spaces, a group show featuring three Middle Eastern artists: Taher Rouzmahsali, Hamidreza Emami, and Azza Al Quabaisi. Exploring how the old cities’ simplicity and the complexity of the future ones are connected, the exhibition also delves into how humans interact with their environment. It will be open to the public until tomorrow, the 5th of September 2023.
About the participants
Taher Rouzmahsali (b. 1991, Tabriz, Iran) obtained his MFA from the Art University of Isfahan. In his outstanding artworks, he captures the beauty of ultra-modern and sophisticated cities that look familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Well-structured labyrinthine-like geometric cityscapes are empty of any human, so eventually, the monumental buildings start to disintegrate: in the absence of the people who built them, cities become destructive systems. The subject of the human is diminished by the complexity of space. The hollow subjects and the empty volumes also evoke the vacuum from the lack of life, from sucking humans into mazes and interconnected structures. These architectural associations bring out the connection between the past and the future.
An alumni of Tehran University (Faculty of Fine Arts), Hamidreza Emami (b. 1973, Mashhad, Iran) produces works that are all about the aesthetics of absence and void in abandoned cities. In his art practice, he focuses on surfaces, form, shadow, and light rather than composition. Inspired by Italian artist Giorgio Morandi, Rembrandt, and American artist Edward Hopper, Emami’s mysterious and somewhat melancholic paintings are based on a conflict made more intense by the high contrast between light and shadow. Depicting empty streets, corners, and other urban spaces, the artist’s works evoke a feeling of loneliness and yet they do not make viewers feel hopeless.
Azza Al Qubaisi (b. 1978, Abu Dhabi, UAE), a jewellery artist, product designer, and sculptor, has obtained a BA in Jewellery Design, Silversmithing, and Allied Crafts; besides, she holds an MA in Cultural and Creative Industries. The main source of inspiration for her is her Emirati heritage. To create her fascinating art pieces, she employs metals (gold, silver, steel, etc.) and various natural materials, especially those that were essential for the Emiratis before oil was discovered in the region: oud incense, wood, palm branches, and others. Among the traditional techniques that Al Qubaisi’s art-making practice involves is Al Sadu, a form of weaving practised by Bedouin women. In the artist’s works, the natural landscape (such as the desert shapes, patterns, and textures) and different cultural references are merged. Al Qubaisi says that what she creates reflects her artistic journey to understand who she is as an Emirati and highlights all the materials she has used “that were part of the fabric of life in the past”.
To get more information about Empty Spaces, please visit the ArtBooth gallery’s official website.
You might also be interested in visiting An Ode to Portraiture at Ayyam Gallery and Summer Allegory at XVA Gallery.
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