The ATHR gallery presents In/visible: Objects in the Mirror, a group exhibition exploring materiality and the significance of objects in our lives. The participating artists are Sarah Abu Abdullah, Zahrah AlGhamdi, Dana Awartani, Ayman Yossri Daydban, Sultan bin Fahad, and Muhannad Shono. The show will be on view until 27 December 2023.
Among the exhibited artworks is the Untitled series by Zahrah AlGhamdi. Revealing the microcosm of biodiversity in soil, it draws our attention to its essential but often ignored role in the planet’s ecosystem. In her Platonic Solids Duals, which is also on display at the show, Dana Awartani reimagines traditional Islamic geometry through wood, brass, and glass. Ayman Yossri Daydban showcases his Black Eye artwork. Employing soil in this work, he reflects on borders and gives spectators an understanding of what “home” means in a politically charged world. At the exhibition, Sultan Bin Fahad is represented by his Beaded Series. He delves into cultural exchange by employing metal boxes used in Saudi weddings and transformed by Nigerian beadwork craftsmen.
The show also features two art pieces by Random International (an art collective and studio): Fragments and A Study for Gradients. Playing with perception, the works challenge how we understand form and shape.
About the participants
Sarah Abu Abdullah (b. 1990, Qatif, KSA) is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Riyadh, KSA. Apart from painting, her art practice includes video, installations, performances, and poetry. In her work, she references gender roles and the female experience while investigating the social and cultural conditions of Saudi Arabia. The artist draws inspiration from constantly changing surroundings between her travels and her home in KSA, the Internet, and the pop culture in the Gulf region.
Digital image on woven cotton textile. 53 × 63 in | 134.6 × 160 cm
Zahrah AlGhamdi (b. 1977, Al Baha, KSA) lives in Jeddah, KSA. AlGhamdi explores memory and history through traditional architecture in both medium and assemblage; the idea of “embodied memory” is at the core of her practice. Using soil, clay, pebbles, leather, and water, she creates site-specific installations which expand across architectural structures and natural landscapes.
Dana Awartani (b. 1987, Jeddah) resides in her hometown. Her work focuses on the contemporary revival of traditional Islamic geometry and historical modes of making through crafts and artisanal practices. Awartani’s art-making process involves an array of mediums and methods: performance, manuscript illumination, parquetry, ceramics, embroidery, and pigment preparation. Awartani examines the relationship between geometry and nature. She is also interested in how truths can be translated through art using geometric principles.
23 1/5 × 23 1/5 in | 59 × 59 cm
Ayman Yossri Daydban (b. 1966, Palestine) is a renowned artist based in Jeddah whose oeuvre includes paintings, photographs, and prints. In his practice, he observes the viewer and his surroundings while remaining independent. The artist explores such themes as identity, the social collective memory, existence, belonging, and alienation.
Sultan bin Fahad (b. 1971, Riyadh) lives and works in New York. The key theme he examines in his art is material culture in Saudi Arabia. In his creations (drawings, paintings, sculptures, and installations), the artist reimagines found objects, such as flasks, prayer mats, chandeliers, etc., and explores expressions of Islam and Saudi identity and history.
Muhannad Shono (b. 1977) was born in Riyadh, where he still lives and works. Shono’s works (sculptures, robotic installations, drawings, and others) are characterised by a black-and-white palette. Drawing from his family history, in his art, Shono delves into such ideas as learning, creativity, and human nature in place of specific cultural or geographic references.
To learn more about In/visible: Objects in the Mirror, please visit the exhibition’s official web page.
You might also be interested in attending Introspection as Resistance by Mehdi Moutashar and the A Way With Light group show.
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