XVA Gallery has arranged a group show titled Summer Allegory, which pays tribute to this season when positive feelings come to the surface and make us appreciate everything we do more. Summer gives us the ability and forsite to experience our environment being more grounded. The exhibition, which will be on view until 7 September 2023, features the diverse art pieces by four artists: Richard Ketley, Solimar Miller, Elisabeth Dorazio, and Colleen Quigley.
Richard Ketley (b. 1964, Johannesburg, South Africa) lives and works between Johannseburg and Dubai. He graduated from University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a BA degree and obtained his MFA from the same university in 2018. In 2009, Ketley opened his own consulting studio in Dubai.
The artist prefers working with charcoal, acrylic paints, and oil. Travelling in the Middle East and Africa a lot, he creates images inspired by the world around him. They are drawn from life but extend the spectator’s imagination. Ketley says that he is “interested in formal elements of painting and drawing […] and in finding meaning where others do not.”
Solimar Miller (b. 1969, San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an artist, printmaker, and textile designer who has been living and working in Dubai for more than 20 years. She got her BFA degree in Textile and Surface Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, USA) and also studied illustration at Parsons School of Design (New York, USA).
In her work, Miller focuses on the world of nature and addresses climate change. She employs different mediums and printing techniques to make drawings and hand silk-screening prints in which she highlights the unique qualities of Dubai’s indigenous tree species and plants. This is her way to draw public attention to how vulnerable the region’s flora is to global warming and other environmental issues.
Elizabeth Dorazio (b. 1957, Araguari, Brazil) is a multimedia artist: her artistic practice includes drawing, etching, collage, woodwork, and installation. She received her BFA in Visual Arts from the Guignard University of Art of Minas Gerais (Brazil) in 1982. After that, she studied Ancient Italian Art Techniques at the Institute of Art and Restoration (Florence, Italy) and Drawing at Abendschule (Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). In 2023, the artist graduated from the NYU Abu Dhabi (UAE) with a MFA in Art and Media.
Dorazio works between Brazil and the Emirates, so her art is influenced by the visual cultures and popular techniques of both countries. Among the sources of her inspiration are also instability, shifting surfaces, the cosmic, the organic, and the cellular. In her mixed-media artworks, she delves into the mysteries of human relations to nature and the cosmos. Dorazio’s work also involves collaborating with traditional arts practitioners from around the globe.
Colleen Quigley is a Japanese-American visual artist residing in Tucson (Arizona, USA). In 1983, she obtained her BFA in Sculpture from University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA, USA). In 1987, she was granted the Japanese Government Scholarship and went to Japan. There, she studied traditional and contemporary Japanese printmaking techniques at Kyoto Institute of Technology. In 1989, Quigley graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Japan) with a MFA degree. Currently, she works as an Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University (Dubai).
Quigley’s art practice features painting (including encaustic painting), sculpting, creating installations, and utilising digital mediums. In her work inspired by the beauty of the natural world, she explores materiality, perception, memory, and place. The artist is also interested in such themes as subjectivity, the body, migration, representation, popular culture, and cultural identity. With the help of repeated geometric shapes, colour, and patterns, Quigley creates spatial compositions which capture and reflect subtle shifts encompassing various viewable angles and perspectives.
To learn more about the Summer Allegory show, please visit its official web page.
You might also be interested in visiting Salam at ArtBooth Gallery.
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