Khawla Art Gallery has organised the Totem Exhibition, a group show running through 30 July 2025. It presents a series of sculptures conceptualised by acclaimed designer Grazyna Solland, whose practice spans furniture design, spatial aesthetics, and conceptual art. Known for her ability to merge function with symbolism, Solland brings this vision to life through ten towering totems: slender, column-like structures composed of individually hand-painted discs.
Each totem is assembled by Solland and features painted contributions from nine artists across the MENA region. Together, they transform the totemic form into a richly layered visual language, exploring themes of identity, heritage, and cultural memory.
The participating artists include Lebanese creatives Ghaleb Hawila, a calligrapher celebrated for his experimental typography that merges traditional Arabic script with modern gestures and textures, and Ihab Ahmad, whose surreal, illustrative paintings evoke memory through vivid colour and figuration.
Also featured are Syrian artists Ghalia Kalaji, Nawar Shartouh, and Nidal Khaddour. Kalaji is known for her layered and expressive painting style that often explores feminine identity and emotional states through colour and abstraction. Shartouh, who works across painting and digital media, investigates themes of urban fragmentation and cultural displacement. His art is characterised by its emotional depth and psychological complexity. Meanwhile, Khaddour, recognised for his abstract compositions and textured surfaces, explores materiality and gesture with subtle emotional undercurrents.
Among the contributors are Emirati artists Hend Rashed, who draws from local Emirati culture and often incorporates textile, pattern, and poetic language into her art pieces, and Reem Al Mazrouei, who employs mixed media to explore concepts of heritage, belonging, and visual rhythm.
The exhibition also features Sudan-born artist Yousif Yassin and Iranian artist and educator Sahar Ghavami. Yassin’s installations and paintings explore diasporic identity and spiritual symbolism; Ghavami, known for her graphic sensibility and bold use of line and colour, delves into themes of memory, culture, and identity.
To learn more about the Totem Exhibition, please visit the official web page of the event.
In addition, you might be interested in exploring How to Work Together? by Eltiqa, a collective exhibition at Jameel Arts Centre.
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