The ninth edition of the annual “Women in Art” exhibition is proudly presented by Courtyard Gallery and Art Connection. This continual effort to endorse female artists in the United Arab Emirates celebrates the diverse talents and cultural melange that is the hallmark of Dubai’s cosmopolitan community.
The exhibitions brings together sixteen artists from eleven different countries showcasing a varied range of art genres comprising acrylic, oil, charcoal and mixed media paintings, photography and hand-made jewellery.
Fatima Nadia Rehman hails from Pakistan but has lived in Dubai since 2007. Fatima has spent ten years painting and learning the fine skill of Arabic calligraphy. A full-time Calligraphist and Islamic miniature painter, she honed her craft at the University of Philadelphia and also at the National College of Arts. Her various projects have included curatorial work for The Farjam Collection and the restoration of forty antique Qurans. She now teaches Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic borders at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre.
Her two large scale paintings for “Women in Art” feature fluid equine forms set against a tastefully neutral background with subtle Arabic calligraphic elements. Rehman’s subtle colour palette lends majesty and grace to her subjects which are juxtaposed in intense black.
Jordanian artist Lama Khatib Daniel spent ten years working as an art director for an advertising agency in Dubai but burned with a fire to create something of her own. She finally took the plunge and devoted herself to art full-time in 2008. Daniel describes herself as a self-taught passionate artist; “A wide-eyed child of the world” according to her Facebook page. Her work is characterised by faces, each figurative piece contains unexpected aspects that surprise the viewer as they are drawn into Daniel’s whimsical world.
The largest of Daniel’s doe-eyed compositions at the exhibition arrests your attention with her strikingly outsized head dress of red roses but a closer inspection rewards the viewer with a surprise: The painting is bleeding! An enigmatic teardrop runs down the work, pooling into a spot of bright crimson on the floor.
Other artists featured in this group show are Christina Lindea Saarinen (Finland), Fahima Fattah (Iraq), Isabel Riou Tisserie (France), Jennifer Simon (England), Layla AlHosani (UAE), Lina Ogaily (Iraq), Mona Mehravani Nikoo (Iran), Moza Al Falasi (UAE), Nada Al Hashimi (Iraq), Ola Allouz (UAE), Rania Daou (Lebanon), Zahida Zaytoun (Syria), Zahra Jewanjee (Pakistan) and Dalia Hamdallah (Palestine).
More images are at the Women in Art IX album.
Images: Courtesy of Courtyard Gallery
Women in Art IX runs till 12 December 2013.
At:
Courtyard Gallery
Al Quoz 3
Street 6
Dubai
T: +971 4 3479090
E: [email protected]
W: www.courtyardgallerydubai.com
Gallery timings:
Sun to Thur 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
