Ayyam Gallery is currently home to The Fire’s Edge, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Ali Kaaf, which presents key bodies of his work, including pieces from the Rift, Helmet, and Ras Ras series. An immersive exploration of material, memory, and transformation, the show will be open to the public until 10 January 2026.
The Fire’s Edge focuses on the fragile boundary where ancestral practices meet contemporary erasure and where fire, once a tool of care, renewal, and ritual, becomes a metaphor for destruction and loss. The exhibition’s title prompts one to reflect on how destruction, drought, and extraction cast long shadows over the possibility of regeneration. Kaaf asks viewers to consider what vanishes and what persists when culture, ecology, and knowledge are threatened.
The artist’s practice is deeply rooted in dichotomies: between density and void, past and present, control and material force. Using elemental materials (paper, charcoal, fire, ink, and glass), he creates vibrant forms that evoke both presence and absence. In the Ras Ras series, photographic surfaces are altered by fire; expected imagery is turned into blank voids that gesture toward the absence of thought or freedom of expression. Meanwhile, the Helmet series, which comprises blown-glass sculptural pieces inspired by ancient wartime headgear, evokes the fragility of memory and the tension between endurance and vulnerability.
About the artist
Ali Kaaf (b. 1977, Oran, Algeria) is a Berlin-based artist of Syrian heritage. He received his first degree in Fine Arts from the Institut des Beaux-Arts in Beirut (Lebanon) in 1998, followed by a second Fine Arts degree from the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2005, where he studied under Syrian painter Marwan Kassab Bachi and German artist Rebecca Horn.
Kaaf’s practice, which spans drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, video, and installation, engages with concepts of presence and absence, erosion and transformation. His work is informed by Sufi philosophy and by a sustained inquiry into the relationship between emptiness, repetition, and material decay. This layered visual language reflects a continuous dialogue between Arab and European cultural traditions, as well as the artist’s own experiences of displacement and memory.
Kaaf has displayed his artworks in multiple exhibitions and art events: Maknana: An Archeology of New Media Art In the Arab World (Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, KSA, 2025); I Know the Emptiness of this House (solo) (Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan, 2023); Documenta 15 (Kassel, Germany, 2022); and SyriArt (Institut du Monde Arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, 2013), to name a few.
The artist’s accolades include the Honorary AIR Award (the Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, USA, 2014), the Young Collectors for MAXXI Prize (the Young Collectors Association, Rome, Italy, 2010), and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Prize for Outstanding International Students (2004). His works can be found in various collections, such as Museum für islamische Kunst/Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Germany), The Khalid Shoman Foundation Darat Al Funun (Amman, Jordan), and Collection Solidere Beirut (Lebanon), among others.
To get more information about The Fire’s Edge, please visit the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in exploring Moments of Hope by Besher Koushaji.
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