Past
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Reconquista
Nazar Yahya 2 Nov 2015 - 10 Jan 2016 The show is both a visual and emotional experience. An exercise in bittersweet nostalgia, the exhibition is laden with intention to simultaneously be situated in the present moment as well as the past. The artist’s focus on the story of Abu Abdullah, the last Arab leader of Granada, or “Boabdil” as the Spanish have since rendered the name, carries with it the remorse of the last king as he bade farewell to his kingdom with one famous last sigh before being forced to surrender it to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. The infamous story of the last Moorish king serves as the artist’s prompt to investigate many themes including exile, isolation, and the pain over the loss of a homeland; in addition to power rendered antiquated and impotent. Read more -
Uninhibited
Jeffar Khaldi 15 Sep - 17 Oct 2015 Presenting a number of oil paintings highlighting many of the artist’s key themes, including politics and its multitude of absurdities, Uninhibited is an exhibition exploring notions of power of both a political and sexual nature. Khaldi explores these concepts in an introspective manner, presenting photographic-like stills of memories and observations in compositions that juxtapose the real with the imagined. Read more -
Marwan
9 Jun - 6 Jul 2015 Contorted bodies and searching faces reach out of Marwan’s oil paintings and etchings, seeking the viewer and inviting them in to explore the artist’s focus on his road to self-discovery. Questions of identity and contemplations of the self are encapsulated in a palette of vibrant colours, and executed in forms that emphasize the very physical nature of these highly intellectualized exercises by Marwan. Physical self-awareness can also be read in the subtle, yet unmistakable, notion of sexual agitation; and loneliness is presented as both mental and physical realities. Read more -
Something Different: Sculpture and Tapestry
Dia Azzawi 15 Mar - 25 Apr 2015 Meem Gallery will present a solo exhibition dedicated to the sculpture and tapestries of Iraqi modern art pioneer, Dia Azzawi. Renowned for his colourfully rendered paintings, in recent years Azzawi has explored the art of sculpture more actively. Drawing on the visual culture of Mesopotamia, the martyrdom of Hussein, Arabic literature and poetry, and contemporary political issues, Azzawi’s use of various media – painting, drawing, sculpture, dafatir (book art), and tapestry – can be linked thematically. Read more -
Agony and Recreation
Faisal Laibi 28 Jan - 3 Mar 2015 Faisel's œuvre spans fifty years and demonstrates the artist’s continuing commitment to the ancient, traditional, modern and contemporary culture of Iraq. His vividly coloured paintings of individuals and group portraits display ostensibly harmonious scenes of leisure, as demonstrated in his Coffee House series and portraits of fruit, textile, shoe shine and laundry vendors. In his exhibition at Meem Gallery, characters such as The Butcher and The Accordian Player are displayed; and in the case of larger works such as The Café 2, we see a grouping of people from the community, a waiter, a general, a couple reading a newspaper. Read more
