Colour Black Hamra Abbas
Every Colour is a Shade of Black by Hamra Abbas
08.08.2024
   Reading 3 min
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Everyone is welcome to see Every Colour is a Shade of Black, Pakistani artist Hamra Abbas’ public artwork currently on display at Alserkal Avenue. The work’s title reflects an eponymous concept developed by Abbas that involves using cyan, magenta, and yellow to create black. The art piece will be on view until the 31st of August, 2024.

Abbas has been working on the framework of Every Colour is a Shade of Black for several years. Intrigued by the phenomenological treatment of black as a holy colour, she was also fascinated by it from a scientific perspective: black is an absence of colour or an amalgamation of all colours. After having searched for a way to represent it visually, Abbas created Kaaba Picture as a Misprint in 2014, which was initially commissioned by Lawrie Shabibi Gallery in Dubai. Taking the cube of the Kaaba, the most revered site in Islam, down to its basic geometric form, the artist combined CMYK printing’s primary colours (cyan, magenta, and yellow) to create black, a colour synonymous with the identity of this religious structure.

Hamra Abbas, Kaaba Picture as a Misprint, 2014
Hamra Abbas, Kaaba Picture as a Misprint, 2014. C-print. Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery (Dubai).

Through the Every Colour is a Shade of Black framework, Abbas was able to connect different bodies of her work with the central theme of colour: colour as faith and ideology, colour as race and identity, colour as desire and beauty, colour as gender and personal relationships. ⁠

About the artist

Hamra Abbas (b. 1976, Kuwait), who resides in Lahore (Pakistan), obtained her BFA (1999) and MA (2002) in Visual Arts from the National College of Arts (Lahore). After that, she entered the Universität der Künste Berlin (Germany), where she did the Meisterschüler.

The artist employs digital art, installation, and performance, alongside other mediums, to explore cultural history, identity, violence, ornamentation, and religion. Often merging or recontextualising historical and contemporary aesthetics, she examines the complexities of Islamic and Western culture in a globalised world. Among the sources of Abbas’ inspiration are different places where she has lived, such as Berlin and Boston, and her cultural heritage. She also takes cues from the concept of a garden: a symbol of ecology and environment, as well as a metaphoric allusion to the garden of paradise.

Every Colour is a Shade of Black_Al-Av
Hamra Abbas, Every Color is a Shade of Black, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery (Dubai).

Abbas has presented her creations in numerous solo and group shows and art events, which include COLOUR | GARDEN (solo) (Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, 2022); Public Art Programme (EXPO 2020, Dubai, 2021); We Do Not Dream Alone (Asia Society Triennial, New York, NY, USA, 2020); the 2nd Karachi Biennale (Bagh Ibn e Qasim, Karachi, Pakistan, 2019); Hamra Abbas: Wall Hanging (solo) (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 2013); the 2nd International Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale (Incheon, South Korea, 2009); and others.

Abbas has received multiple awards, including the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (Dubai, 2011), the Jury Prize (Sharjah Biennial 9, 2009), and the Meisterschüler Prize (Universität der Künste, Berlin, 2004). The artist’s works have been added to many esteemed public collections, such as the Borusan Foundation (Istanbul, Turkey), the British Museum (London, UK), the Burger Collection (Hong Kong), and the Kadist Collection (Paris, France), to name a few.

To get more information about Every Colour is a Shade of Black, please visit the official website of Lawrie Shabibi Gallery.

In addition, you might be interested in reading our article about the Dubai Public Art Project.

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