Ramallah Art Fair
Ramallah Art Fair 26 Palestinian Artists and over 100 artworks on display
14 December 2020 – 4 March 2021
Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah
Ramallah Art Fair: In cooperation with 26 Palestinian artists, participating with over 100 artworks, Zawyeh Gallery inaugurates the first edition of Ramallah Art Fair on Monday 14 December 2020. This fair’s edition features sets of works created recently or produced specifically for the fair by Palestinian artists, some of whom haven’t exhibited in the gallery before. The launching of the event comes as an attempt to provide original Palestinian art in affordable prices, and a way of encouraging local collectors as well as young and emerging artists during the upcoming festive season. Audience are encouraged to support Palestinian art by choosing unique presents of original pieces of Palestinian art.
The first edition of Ramallah Art Fair displays an array of inspiring artworks, emerging and renown artists, who explore a variety of subjects stem from the Palestinian context. Artworks on display are immersed in the politics of the place that cannot be separated from the life of any Palestinian. Some of the artists tackle the Palestinian landscape under occupation; Khaled Hourani, for example, displays picturesque landscape interrupted by the intruding structure of the Israeli separation wall, while Karim Abu Shakra paints Palestinian indigenous wild plants in pots, suggesting the domestication of these plants and alluding to how the revolutionary life of Palestinians has become domesticated over the years. Fouad Agbaria on the other hand, focuses on the olive tree using mainly black and golden colors to reflect the unappreciated holiness of the olive tree subject to the continuous brutality of occupation. Durar Bacri paints hills and streams that is uninterrupted by elements of occupation. Tayseer Barakat small abstract wooden frames seems to reflect his yearning to the sandy beaches of Gaza while Mohammad Khalil who lives away from the Palestinian coast and cannot access it draws scenes of the wild wavy Mediterranean Sea and rocky beaches with wide strokes of his brush. Rawan Khalilieh’s ink on paper artworks depict scenery of rocky landscape yet one can see in these stones at the same time a group of bodies in motion or entangled together. Sliman Mansour and Wadea Khaled focus on the old city of Jerusalem with its rooftops, old hoashs and holy sites. In a different spirit, Yazan Abu Salameh draws the landscape of everyday life under occupation with heavy presence of military structures, yet one can find tiny colored windows of hope in his greyish paintings. Fayez Sirsawi tackles scenes from demonstrations portraying them from the opposite side.
In this art fair, a group of young artists explore a wide range of sociopolitical issues. Mahdi Baraghithi frames separately three parts of a family photograph under the title “portrait of a family in exile”. By dividing the photo to parts he divides the memory of individuals who once were together but went separate ways. Monther Jawabreh presents faces of martyred children from Gaza embroidered with silk threads. He attempts at introducing these images as new patterns of the iconic and popular Palestinian embroidery which reflects the Palestinian identity. Bashar Khalaf artworks are part of a project experimenting the aesthetics of identity representations. His works are inspired by posters ripped off the walls in public spaces. Fadi Batrice takes a nostalgic journey back to his childhood, only to come back bringing with him a critical look at how the society favors males. Rana Samara on the other hand continues to bring up the issue of intimate places in Palestinian homes but this time through unusually very small sized artworks.Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub
Palestinian women are strongly present in the works of several other participating artists, such as Nabil Anani’s wooden work, Shafik Radwan’s watercolor on paper, Hosni Radwan’s ink and watercolor on paper in addition to Sana Bishara’s bronze sculptures. Ibrahim Al Mozain and Asma Ghanem on the other hand celebrate life with their bold vivid colors of portraits of people.
Ola Zaitoun and Maisara Baroud participate with artworks produced during quarantine, while Bashar Alhroub series of artworks explores holiness. Shada Safadi participates with a series of artworks using cyanotype prints that is either in an abstract form or presents sections of animal images.
Ramallah Art Fair continues daily except Fridays until 4 March 2021.
Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub Silent Garden by Bashar Alhroub