Gallery Isabelle is hosting I Wish To Be Happy, I Want To Be Yellow, a collective exhibition curated by Jad Karam. Featuring works by eight artists who cultivate a deep connection with nature, the show delves into themes of disembodiment and re-embodiment, depicting nature as a fluid entity that merges with the human, the animal, and the mechanical into a new form. The exhibition will welcome all visitors until 28 October 2024.
In their displayed works, the artists challenge conventional notions of time, blending presence and absence, fullness and emptiness, past and present, engaging in generative rituals that nurture creation, fertility, and renewal. Bodies morph, adapt, and redefine themselves, existing in states of transition and transformation. The art pieces incorporate ephemeral materials symbolising the impermanence and fluidity of natural forces, such as food, twigs, ants, flowers, leaves, and candle wax.
Among the exhibits is Bedforms by Saudi-Greek multidisciplinary artist Aminah Al huqail. This series explores the concept of leisure through sunbeds: commercial plastic objects designed for relaxation. Her piece Layers of Skin Strata (2023), made from chickpea skins collectively peeled for hummus, reflects the communal rituals of Arabic food culture, where shared tasks around the table spark conversation.

Emirati artist Jumairy is represented by several works, including Uncertain Past, Uncertain Future (2013), which addresses the fragility of memory through 20 prints accompanied by piles of ants. Ab Ovo (iii) (2024), part of a series of self-portraits created every decade, captures a pivotal moment in the artist’s life, with the ants symbolising the connection between an artist and creation. Jumairy’s Sanguis/Tempus (2024), a series of five red paintings, further explores these themes.
Visitors can also see paintings by Emirati artist Alia Zaal. Through lyrical, expressive brushstrokes, she depicts Ghaf trees, symbols of resilience, suspended between reality and dreams. In her works, the Ghaf tree is a witness to the external world’s constant changes.

French-Lebanese artist Tamara Kalo contributes Folds Unfolding, a series of photographs where the edges dissolve, drape, or collapse, evoking elements from her childhood compound in Riyadh. Her Current Sea (2024), an abstract silk tapestry shaped like an undulating riverbed, uses a Lebanese banknote as the stream of water. Olive Leaves Memory, a 2-metre-long folding book, features pages embedded with the tangible leaves of the artist’s backyard trees or preserved as photograms.

Other creatives featured in the exhibition include Saudi artist and filmmaker Mohammad Alfaraj, Lebanese visual artist Dalia Baassiri, multidisciplinary artist and researcher Richi Bhatia, and Honduran fibre artist Adrian Pepe.
To get more information about I Wish To Be Happy, I Want To Be Yellow, please go to the official web page of the show.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting “…I Kept The Night Vigil…”: Exploring Women’s Voices Across and Beyond the Middle East, an exhibition which is on view at Leila Heller Gallery.