Winter Collective | Palestinian Art

/ Fouad Agbaria (Exhibition), Karim Abu Shakra (Exhibition), Nabil Anani (Exhibition), Nasser Soumi (Exhibition), Sliman Mansour (Exhibition) / Exhibition, Fouad Agbaria, Karim Abu Shakra, Nabil Anani, Nasser Soumi, Sliman Mansour, Winter Collective /

December 12, 2016 – January 10, 2017
Zawyeh Gallery

Nasser Soumi, Multiple de Carreaux (25p), 2014, acrylic on canvas, 101 x 101 cm

Winter Collective – continues through 10 January 2017 – features works by Palestinian artists Foaud Agbaria, Karim Abu Shakra, Nabil Anani, Sana Farah Bishara, Sliman Mansour, Ibrahim Nubani, Samir Salameh, Nasser Soumi and Hani Zurob.

The exhibition captures bold and diverse works of a broad cross-section of both young and established Palestinian artists from Palestine and the diaspora. These works are the personal aesthetic elucidations of individual artists whose lives are intertwined by their collective memory and experiences as Palestinian artists enduring similar fates relating to disenfran- chisement and loss.

Together the works of Salameh; Zurob; Nubani and Soumi combine different expressive styles projecting both harmony and discord; with each exploring the historical legacies and traditions that continue to be threatened by the socio-political realities that stifle the very existence of the indigenous community in Palestine.

Ibrahim Nubani, Untitled III, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 101 cm

Ibrahim Nubani, Untitled II, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90 cm

Ibrahim Nubani, Untitled I, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 107 cm

Agbaria’s pieces capture the contradictions of the modern Palestinian landscape. Delicate and near abstract plains are juxtaposed with troubling images of modern machinery that have indelibly desecrated the Holy Land. An extension of this are Abu Shakra’s State of Reality cubist paintings depicting the chaotic and ever-changing predicaments of the self.

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Fouad Agbaria, Movement of Land III, 2016, oil on canvas, 100 x 140 cm

Fouad Agbaria, Movement of Land IV, 2016, oil on canvas, 120 x 160 cm

Karim Abu Shakra, State of Reality III, 2016, oil on canvas, 203 x 145 cm

Conversely, Anani and Mansour’s innate and iconic figures remind us, once again, of the importance of steadfastness at a time of continued threats to the very fabric of Palestinian society.

Sliman Mansour, Jericho, 2003, oil on canvas, 111 x 87.5 cm

Sliman Mansour, Jericho II, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 111 x 87.5 cm

Nabil Anani, Holy Family III, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 101 x 118 cm

Nabil Anani, Holy Family IV, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 110 x 85 cm

On the face of it, Bishara’s contemplative sculptures evoke personal dispositions yet, her pieces are underpinned by a strong sense of melancholy. Like other works, it is these contradictions that best reflect – in equal measure – the horror and hope; joy and sadness that permeates the works and lives of this group of artists.

Sana Farah Bishara, The Scream, bronze cast, 23x34x17cm

Sana Farah Bishara, Untitled, bronze cast, 56 x 40 x 20 cm

Sana Farah Bishara, Contemplation, bronze cast, 46 x 46 x 8 cm

Sana Farah Bishara, Woman Sitting, bronze cast (2p), 13x13x15cm

The breadth of artistic styles and talents exhibited by this collective is a testimony to the ever-increasing pool of creative talents producing breathtaking modern and contemporary art that is a match to any artistic work being produced today. It is also an apt reflection – and a reminder – of their bittersweet existence in Palestine and beyond.

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