Exhibition “Entangled Existence” is noew held at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai. In this exhibition, six artists come together to express how their existence is entangled with the land and nature. Their artworks are of different styles and backgrounds.
Five artists are Palestinian, and one is Lebanese: Dia Mrad, Bashir Qonqar, Nabil Anani, Bashar Alhroub, Ruba Salameh, and Yazan Abu Salameh. They express their relationship with nature and surroundings using a variety of mediums. Bashir Qonqar, Nabil Anani, and Bashar Alhroub picture trees as a source of different artistic visions filled with emotional charges.
In Ruba Salameh’s art, one can see the entanglement between the geometric shapes and the tiny ants she draws, which disrupt the monotonous harmony on the canvas in a rather unexpected way. The artworks bring to mind a similarity with the resilience of an indigenous population.
Artist continues to explore geometric shapes and follows the rhythms that unfold through the process of creating. Her interest in abstraction expands into a world that has no ending. She ties her western educational background that she has gained and her reality, as someone belonging to the indigenous people. She deconstructs and reconstructs her perception of what it means to be Palestinian, emphasizing this existential connection between the land and its own people. For her, ants symbolize the many parallels and connections she sees between the two.
Dia Mrad, a Lebanese photographer, aimed to document the physical history of Beirut by first looking back at abandoned landmarks and neglected structures that once shaped the city’s culture.
The project develops to look into the contemporary history of the city and its recent unfolding transformation and sheds light on the architecture that might face the same destiny and slip into forgotten history.
A series of artworks of Yazan Abu Salameh concerns the rapidly changing urban environment resulting from the apartheid wall and its impact on daily life.
Living in Bethlehem artist thinks that our cities do not look like us anymore. Through his artworks, he tries to penetrate the blocked horizon and make a way for the beams of the sunlight as his figures keep seeking freedom.
Ziad Anani, Zawyeh Gallery Director, commented that the collective exhibition aims to introduce the region’s artists to Emirati audiences.
Zawyeh Gallery is an independent Visual Art Gallery founded in Ramallah, Palestine, in 2013. Since March 2020, the gallery has expanded by opening in a second location at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, UAE.
