Wafa Hourani

Presenting a Collective Exhibition on Resilience

/ Press Release / Alserkal Avenue, art, Dubai, Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, palestinian art, Resilience Exhibition, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, Wafa Hourani /

PRESS RELEASE:

Zawyeh Gallery is thrilled to announce organizing a collective exhibition on Resilience for Palestinian artists for the first time at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai/UAE. The gallery is taking over Warehouse #44 with an exhibition from 23 March to 30 June 2020 tilted “Palestinian Art: Resilience & Inspiration”.

The exhibition presents a group of prominent Palestinian artists, who have been inspirational not only to the younger generation of artists in Palestine, but equally to the wider audience. In a time of defiance and instability in the region, the artworks deliver a message of resilience in the face of adversaries.

Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat and Wafa Hourani are participating with a variety of artworks based on different mediums.

In Khaled Hourani’s works, the spirit of resilience is apparent and strong. Each work presents a child jumping high in the air over the Israeli Apartheid Wall, that appears of no significance or importance. Hourani focuses on the young generation, who takes upon themselves to challenge occupation regardless of what happens in the political arena; these are the same kids who are seen in demonstrations on the streets bare-chested challenging heavy Israeli artillery, the children of the future.

Khaled Hourani, Hasan, Zeina and Rakan (2020), acrylic on canvas, 122 x 85 cm each

Nabil Anani, Demonstration (2016), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 500 cm

On the other hand, Nabil Anani’s series of artworks titled “Demonstration”, present tangled bodies of women, men and children moving in different motions. The spontaneity of the people – women holding children, couples hugging, children sitting on the shoulders of mothers, reflects the centrality of protest against the occupation in the lives of Palestinians. In each artwork one can catch a glimpse of a domestic animal; a dog, a dove or a goat hidden between the human bodies as if the artist is trying to include various elements of the daily life in these communal actions.

On a long stretch of canvas, Sliman Mansour’s “Revolution was the Beginning” tells the story of Palestine since the Nakba of 1948. Starting with the displacement of Palestinians the artist presents several milestones in the Palestinian struggle. The canvas starts with a scene of a refugee camp under a dark thundery sky (on the right) and ends up with an image of a young man and woman marching while carrying a Palestinian flag, (on the far left). Several direct symbols appear in the artwork, reflecting the right of return, imprisonment, the Apartheid Wall, martyrdom and the transformation of the nature of the Palestinian struggle through history. The artist makes the Dome of the Rock and olive groves, a focal point in the painting.

Sliman Mansour, Revolution was the Beginning (2016), oil on canvas, 200 x 500 cm

Tayseer Barakat, Light in the Dark (2016), acrylic on canvas, 200 x 500 cm

Tayseer Barakat participates with two artworks titled “Light in the Dark”. Unlike the classic realism style of Hourani, Anani and Mansour, both works are abstract in style. Yet the artworks tell the story of people in confinement yearning for freedom. They consist of several windows of mainly black and white colors, each presenting a different story: 1948 Nakba, dispossession, the Intifada, Israeli invasions of Palestinian towns, the Apartheid Wall, Jerusalem, and other details of living under occupation. One can notice a competition between the black and the white colors, a fight for domination in each square as if the artist is redeeming the “white” from a well of a lost memory (black) in an attempt of documentation for future generations.

Mirror Party by Wafa Hourani, is a many layered artwork reflecting the realities of living under occupation. The installation presents a segment of the Israeli Apartheid Wall with the prediction of “the emergence of a Palestinian political party who places a large mirror along the Apartheid Wall making it disappear.” While demonstrating the significance of the wall in size in relation to the figures, the installation, in its core, criticizes the Palestinian internal political situation and raises questions about the beautification of the wall as opposed to confronting the political reality.

Director of Zawyeh Gallery, Ziad Anani comments, “We are excited to be the first gallery to organize a group exhibition to Palestinian artists at Alserkal Avenue. We understand the important of initiating new platforms for Palestinian art to expose it to a variety of audiences. As a gallery, we have been participating in Art Dubai for a few consecutive years now, and we know that there is a growing demand on Palestinian art in the Emirates.” He adds “We believe in investing in creativity and in supporting emerging Palestinian artists as well as reflecting the spirit of artistic production in Palestine to the wider world.”

Zawyeh Gallery is an independent Visual Art Gallery founded in Ramallah, Palestine, in 2013. The gallery is one of a few art galleries in Palestine and has been engaging in local and international art scenes through organizing several solo and group exhibitions for Palestinian artists living in Palestine and abroad.

exhibition on resilience exhibition resilience exhibition resilience

Wafa Hourani, A Letter for Her, A Letter of Fate (2018), photography collage and post stamps, 35 x 44 x 5 cm

Art Dubai 2020

/ Khaled Hourani (Art Fair), Sliman Mansour (Art Fair), Wafa Hourani (Art Fair) / art dubai, Art Dubai 2020, Art Fair, Khaled Hourani, Sliman Mansour, Wafa Hourani /

ART DUBAI 2020

25 – 28 March, 2020
Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai
Booth E6

Zawyeh Gallery participates this year in Art Dubai, with the artworks of two Palestinian artists: Khaled Hourani and Sliman Mansour. The artworks examine different manifestations of concepts of confinement, borders, and connection in Palestine.

Khaled Hourani participates with works from his early project, “Picasso in Palestine,” which was organized in cooperation with the Van Abbemuseum. While, his “Picasso in Palestine #3” (oil on canvas), is a recreation of a photo of Picasso’s Buste de Femme (1943), exhibited in Ramallah in 2011, which appears with a Palestinian security guard. His “Picasso in Palestine, New York, 10013 291 Church Street” (Photography), is a reproduction of several layers of “photos of photos\” of guards wearing several national customs guarding eventually a previous photo of the original Picasso painting displayed on the exhibition wall in Ramallah. In the third artwork, a special focus is given to the process of shipping the precious artwork with a touch of sarcasm. In his project Picasso in Palestine, Khaled Hourani originally questioned a complicated loan procedure and endless negotiations between different parties in order to display a famous painting in the exceptionally confined nature of the Palestinian reality. The project took new dimensions as it developed at a later stage when the new reproductions delved further into examining the relationship between art and power.

In Sliman Mansour’s artworks, the combination of areas painted in acrylic colors and areas of cracked mud is focal. This combination of two contrasting materials emphasizes the tension between the roughness of the mud cracks which is dominant, and the contrasting adjacent areas of smoothly painted acrylic colors. Mansour’s paintings could be a representation of the stalemate situation in the Palestinian current reality and the changes that permeate the nature of Palestinians as people. His figures as if transforming slowly and discretely from being colorful and vibrant into disintegrated and fragmented characters broken into colorless pieces. Yet, its not all dim and gloomy, his “Temporary Escape” gives some hope that this transformation is only transient.

: Khaled Hourani, Picasso in Palestine #2, 2019, oil on canvas, 125 x 170 cm

: Khaled Hourani, Picasso in Palestine #3, 2019, oil on canvas, 142 x 110 cm

: Sliman Mansour, Survival, (2018) mud on wood, 120 x 120 cm

: Sliman Mansour, Absent Presence II, 2019, mud and acrylic on wood, 140 x 100 cm

Wafa Hourani Palestinian Artist banner, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Art: Palestinian artists contemplate Palestinian reality using a wealth of materials

/ Press Release / Abu Dhabi Art 2019, Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, Press release, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, Wafa Hourani /

Abu Dhabi Art Fair 2019

Ramallah/ Palestine -18 Nov 2019: Five Palestinian artists participate in Abu Dhabi Art Fair this year, with distinctive old and new artworks within Zawyeh Gallery booth # S15. Wafa Hourani, Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour and Tayseer Barakat, artworks examine an array of subjects stemming from the Palestinian reality using a wealth of materials, in a reflective, contemplative engagement.

Ziad Anani, director of Zawyeh Gallery, stressed on the importance of bringing knowledge about the Palestinian art to the audience in Abu Dhabi, especially that the art scene in Palestine is one of the most vibrant scenes in the Arab World. Choosing artworks was not an easy task though, he says, “We opted for powerful artworks that are deeply critical of the Palestinian reality yet we wanted to reflect hope too”.

While Wafa Hourani’s installation structures are futuristic illusionary scenes that represent the socio-political aspects of the Palestinian existence under occupation, Khaled Hournai’s appropriations of his previous project “Picasso in Palestine” examine the relationship between art and power questioning along the complications of displaying a famous painting in the exceptional realities of Palestine.

New artworks by prominent artists Nabil Anani and Sliman Mansou are also on display, which represent a return to the use of natural materials ranging from desiccated plants, straw, mud, and other mixed media. Anani’s works focus on thriving olive groves that grow in an empty semi-arid landscape in Palestine reflecting the sturdy nature of this plant, an iconic symbol of Palestinians who remain rooted in their land despite adversities. On the other hand, Mansour’s artworks create a tension between the rough and smooth as if criticizing the changing nature of the Palestinian people facing a stalemate political situation yet suggesting that the current situation is transient and better times are yet to come.

In an attempt to make a connection with the wealth of artistic practices from the past, Zawyeh presents a collection of Tayseer Barakat‘s wooden work from the 1990s which attempts at examining details of life in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza through a prolonged detailed visual memoir.

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Zawyeh Gallery @ Booth # S15

Art Abu Dhabi 21-23 Nov, at Manarat Al Saadiyat, 2 pm to 9 pm

Abu Dhabi Palestinian Artists

Abu Dhabi Art 2019

/ Khaled Hourani (Art Fair), Nabil Anani (Art Fair), Sliman Mansour (Art Fair), Tayseer Barakat (Art Fair), Wafa Hourani (Art Fair) / Abu Dhabi Art, Art Fair, Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, Wafa Hourani /

ABU DHABI ART 2019

21 – 23 November, 2019
Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi
Booth S15

Zawyeh Gallery participates in Abu Dhabi Art 2019, with distinctive old and new artworks representing five renowned Palestinian artists: Khaled Hourani, Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, and Tayseer Barakat. Across the spectrum, the artists use a wealth of materials and represent a variety of styles, examining an array of subjects that stem from Palestinian reality.

Khaled Hourani participates with two pieces from his early project “Picasso in Palestine,” which was organized in cooperation with the Van Abbe Museum. While his “Picasso in Palestine, 2019” (acrylic on canvas), is a recreation of a photo of Picasso’s Buste de Femme (1943), exhibited in Ramallah in 2011, which appears with two Palestinian guards. His “Picasso in Palestine 2019, installation view: catastrophe and the power of art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo” (Photography), is a reproduction of several layers of “photos of photos\” of guards wearing several national customs guarding eventually a previous photo of the original Picasso painting displayed on the exhibition wall in Ramallah. In his project Picasso in Palestine, Khaled Hourani originally questioned a complicated loan procedure and endless negotiations between different parties in order to display a famous painting in the exceptional nature of Palestinian reality. The project took new dimensions as it developed at a later stage when the new reproductions delved further into examining the relationship between art and power.

On the other hand, Nabil Anani, introduces new materials in his series “Olive Groves”, using natural desiccated plants, straw, and mixed media. His artworks capture an empty semi-arid landscape in which plants grow scarcely while olive trees thrive. The scenery of olive groves spreading over the horizon through the Palestinian landscape reflects the sturdy nature of this plant that remains rooted in the earth despite adversities.

Natural materials are also focal in Sliman Mansour’s artworks. The combination of mud and acrylic on wood reflects the tension between the rough cracks of mud which is dominant, in contrast to adjacent areas of smoothly painted acrylic colors. Mansour’s paintings represent the stalemate situation in the Palestinian current reality and the subsequent changes that permeate the nature of Palestinians as people. They suggest a slow transformation of colorful, vibrant figures into disintegrating characters broken into many colorless pieces. Yet, it is not all dim and gloomy, his “Temporary Escape” gives some hope that this transformation is only transient.

Tayseer Barakat‘s wooden work reminds us of early cave drawings. Animals, abstract figures, and alphabet-like symbols are all executed using wood-burning tools. His works represent a past phase from the nineties, in which the artist primarily examined details of his personal life in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza as if writing a prolonged detailed memoir.