Ayyam Gallery Dossier

Alserkal Avenue, B11 Street 8, Al Quoz Industrial 1 Dubai, United Arab Emirates T: +971 4 323 62 42 F: +971 4 323 62 43 dubai@ayyamgallery.com www.ayyamgallery.com

Ayyam Gallery was founded in 2006 in Damascus by

area now known as Al Serkal Avenue, at a time when it

Khaled and Jouhayna Samawi; while the couple always

was not even zoned for commercial activity. They also

collected, it was only upon their relocation to Syria in

had branches in Dubai’s financial district, Jeddah, Beirut,

2001 that they immersed themselves in the Contemporary

and London. In addition to raising the exposure of Middle

Damascus art scene, and the idea to open a gallery was

Eastern art to a broader audience, the gallery has played

born.

a crucial role in preserving Syrian art during and postconflict.

Ayyam Gallery quickly established itself in the region and internationally with an identity that combined global

The Samawis relocated the gallery’s headquarters from

promotion of Middle Eastern art via commercial activities

Damascus to Dubai as well as 20-25 Syrian artists, their

and grassroots support for artists. Aid such as the Shabab

families, and some 22,000+ works of art from Damascus

Ayyam program for emerging artists, publications,

over three years. This move not only ensured the artist’s

educational programming, and several charity auctions.

personal safety but also the freedom to work and the legacy of Syrian art.

The gallery is one of the leading commercial galleries specializing in a roster of Arab and Iranian artists. With the

Ayyam Gallery remains a family business. Khaled’s

help of partner and cousin Hisham Samawi, the gallery

children have active roles in the company; it is now

was the first to move into a warehouse in Al Quoz, in the

managed by Maya, an architect, and art historian.

On the left, an installation shot from the summer collective exhibition, Echoes & Perceptions featuring works of AbdulKarim Majdal AlBeik, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, and Sama Alshaibi.

Above in the first row, in order from left to right, Fadi Mamlouk, Jouhayna Samawi, Sama Alshaibi, Maya Samawi, Ead Samawi, Khaled Samawi, and Hisham Samawi.

In the middle, 1000 + 1 Grips of Time installation by Faisal Samra.

On the left, an installation shot from Samia Halaby’s 2021 solo, Flurrying.

Selected programming and artists The gallery’s roster features established and emerging

Some self - taught, while others have bachelors and

Arab and Iranian artists alike. Our artists are spread across

masters, their roots are all that they have in common. As

three continents. Our artists are based in Europe, the US,

a window through our programming and what our artists

the Levant, Gulf, and Iran. The Middle Eastern identity is

represent we have gathered a snippet of information

simultaneous and synonymous with diaspora. Artists seek

accompanied by works by a selection.

refuge to live a better and more successful life, pursuing their passion.

Please feel free to visit our website at www.ayyamgallery.com for more

On the left, a Sadik Kwaish Alfraji exhibition in the Beirut space.

Below on the left a video installation by Sama Alshaibi, in our Alserkal space, on the right hand side, a Mohamad Bozorgi exhibition in our Jeddah space.

In the bottom a panoramic of our Beirut space, featuring a Samia Halaby exhibition.

The panoramic view is an installation by Ammar AlBeik, from an exhibition in our B11 space in Alserkal.

The below row from left to right, Khaled Jarrar installation shot from our B12 space, in the middle a Nadim Karam install shots, and finally a Tammam Azzam exhibition.

Pioneer | Faisal Samra (Saudi Arabia-Bahrain, b. 1955) Long considered one of the Arab Gulf’s foremost artists

Samra’s works are housed in the collections of The British

and a pioneer of conceptual art in the Middle East,

Museum, London; BuchDruckKunst e.V Art Book Museum,

Bahraini-born, Saudi national Faisal Samra incorporates

Hamburg; the National Museum, Mexico City; the Modern

digital photography, painting, sculpture, video, and

Art Museum, Cairo; Almansouria Foundation, Jeddah;

performance in a creative repertoire that explores

Jameel Art Foundation, Jeddah; Jordan National Gallery

existentialist themes with the figure at its center. Since the

of Fine Arts, Amman; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern

mid-1970s, Samra has tested the conventional functions

Art, Doha; and Bahrain National Museum, Manama,

of media through meticulously structured works with

among others. He has participated in biennials in

experimentation and research as the guiding principles

Singapore and Cairo (2008) and is a jury member for the

of his artistic practice. As his oeuvre has progressed

Alexandria Biennale, Egypt.

and defied traditional modes of representation, he has rebelled against his own understanding of art, transitioning

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into new works that maintain three essential concepts:

2021 2009

spontaneity, dynamism, and secrecy.

Above, 1000 + 01 Grips of Time, 2019, Burnt clay and nails installation, and 99 Moments, 2019, Charcoal on paper installation.

Diriyah Biennale, First Biennale in Saudi Arabi 53rd International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

Right page (from left to right, top to bottom) Performance #36, 2007, Digital photo Performance #16, 2007, Digital photo P.61-D22, 2019, Charcoal and oil paint on canvas American Football Player, 1979, Pencil and pastel on paper Resistance,2010-2011,Video

Pioneer | Samia Halaby (Palestine, b. 1936) Born in Jerusalem in 1936, Samia Halaby is a leading

Halaby has been collected by international institutions

abstract painter and an influential scholar of Palestinian

since the 1970s, including The British Museum; the Solomon

art. Although based in the United States since 1951,

R. Guggenheim Museum of Art (New York and Abu

Halaby is recognised as a pioneer of contemporary

Dhabi); Yale University Art Gallery; National Gallery of

abstraction in the Arab world.

Art, Washington D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Museum of Art; Institut du Monde Arabe and many more.

Halaby began her career in the early 1960s. Also influenced by the abstract movements of the Russian

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avant-garde, Halaby works with the conviction that new approaches to painting can redirect ways of seeing and

Samia was the first woman professor at Yale University.

thinking not only within the realm of aesthetics but also as

From the very start of her career in late 60s Samia has more than 29 solo shows and participate in more than 53 group exhibitions all over the world.

contributions to technological and social advancement.

This underlying notion has led to additional experiments in drawing, printmaking, computer-based kinetic art, and free-from-the- stretcher painting.

Samia was featured in the 2022 biennale at the Palestinian Pavilion.

On the left

Above

New Orleans Harbour, 1984, Acrylic added to silkscreen proof

Green Horizon, 1977, Wax Crayons on Paper

Yellow-Green Wedge, 2018, Acrylic on canvasSamia Halaby

Circling Far, 2015, Acrylic on linen canvas

Ultra Marine Diagonal, 2011, Acrylic on paper

Pale and Green, 2015, Acrylic on linen canvas

Established | Sadik Kwaish Alfraji (Iraq, b. 1960) Sadik Kwaish Alfraji explores what he describes as ‘the

Arts, Amman; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia; and

problem of existence’ through drawings, paintings, video

Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, Romania; Los Angeles Country

animations, art books, graphic art, and installations.

Museum; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha;

The shadowy protagonist who often appears in Alfraji’s

and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

multimedia works represents a black void, a filter that allows him to explore the intricacies of life. By rendering his

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solitary character as a charcoal-coloured silhouette and minimising the formal properties of his compositions, Alfraji captures the expressed movements and subtle inflections of the body in psychologically laden environments.

The artist often records his own narrative in black and white scenes of this recurring figure, particularly the loss,

In 2022 Sadik had a big institutional show at Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort ​​ (Nederlands) Sadik work “Sing Like the Southerners Do”, is now part of Stedelijk Museum’s permanent collection, Amsterdam (Nederlands)

fragmentation, and lapses in time that underline exile.

2017 I am the Hunter/I am the Prey, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

Alfraji’s works are housed in private and public collections

2017 Archaic, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (Curator: Martina Corgnati)

including Stedelijk Museum, the British Museum, London; National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad; The Art Center, Baghdad; National Gallery of Fine Arts Amman; Shoman Foundation, Amman; Royal Association of Fine

2015 Eye of the Thunderstorm: Effervescent Practices from the Arab World, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (Curator: Martina Corgnati)

On the left

Below

Once I Could Fly, 2012, Indian Ink, Charcoal, Acrylic, Rice & Printed Paper on Canvas.

Nightmares of the Reeds 8, 2019, Oil and ink on paper Installation shot from one of his solos at our Alserkal space Inside the Floating Basket Home, 2018, Indian ink on canvas

Established | Safwan Dahoul (Syria, b. 1961) With a career spanning over three decades, Syrian artist,

and longing that punctuate the human experience at

Safwan Dahoul is now a household name both regionally

various stages in life.

and internationally. As one of the foremost painters in the Arab world, the artist has repeatedly demonstrated

​Dahoul’s paintings are held in numerous private and

how contemporary modes of figuration can describe

public collections, including the Institut du Monde Arabe,

the psychic terrain of a region that is in constant flux.

Paris; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; National Museum,

Throughout his career, Dahoul has managed to include

Damascus; The Samawi Collection, Dubai; The Farjam

varying artistic styles while still keeping to his core identity

Collection, Dubai; the Arab Fund for Economic and Social

and style.

Development, Kuwait.

Dahoul is mostly known for his beautiful melancholic and

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monochromatic works that present influences from the

entitled the Dream series, these works have explored the

Often misconceived as the wife he lost, Safwan’s protagonist is the representation of his subconscious, a narrator of his quotidien. She might have been the representation of a lost lover, but at the core she is the mirror of his deepest feelings and thoughts, a figure that

physical and psychological effects of alienation, solitude,

lives in all of us.

Cubist style of Picasso ranging to Assyrian and Pharaonic art. Since the late 1980s, the artist began an ongoing body of work investigating the dream state. Simply

On the left

Above

Dream 109, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

Dream 173, 2018, Acrylic on Canvas

Installation shot from one of his recent solo at our Alserkal space

Dream 99, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

Dream 152, 2017, Acrylic on canvas

Dream 100, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

Mid-career | Sama Alshaibi (Palestine - Iraq, b. 1973) Born in Basra to an Iraqi father and a Palestinian mother,

Though the artist uses her own body as the subject of

Sama Alshaibi is based in the United States, where she

the images, she does not consider the works to be self

is chair of the photography program at the university of

portraits, her body is an emblem of women, placing

arizona.

the feminin body in a place of power through her work.

By using elements of her experiences, anxieties and

Situated within natural environments, Sama Alshaibi’s

curiosities, the artist is able to embody different characters

multimedia work explores spaces of conflict and the

that perform various issues, people and concepts.

power struggles that arise in the aftermath of war and exile. Alshaibi is particularly interested in how such clashes

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occur between citizens and the state, creating vexing crises that impact the physical and psychic realms of the individual as resources and land, mobility, political agency, and self-affirmation are compromised.

2021 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, USA 2013 55th Venice Biennale, Maldives National Pavilion, Maldives (Curators: Aida Eltorie and Alfredo Cramerotti)

Through performance, video, photography, and allegorical site that makes the byproducts of war visible.

She is Chair and Professor of Photography and Video Art at the University of Arizona

Above

On the right

Installation shot from one of her recent solo at our Alserkal space

Ma Lam Tabki (Unless weeping), Silsila, 2014, Diasec print, 2014

installation, Alshaibi positions her own body as an

Gamer, 2019, Photogravure Before Us, 2019, Albumen Sketch 9, Negative Capable Hands, 2010, Digital print Sissy My Playmate, The Pessimists Series, 2010, Video

Mid-career |Thaier Helal (Syria, b. 1967) Helal launched his career in his native Syria, where he

that often blur the lines between painting and

studied with seminal painters at the Faculty of Fine Arts,

assemblage. With an innovative painting style that

University of Damascus. After relocating to the United

has progressed over the course of two decades, Helal is

Arab Emirates in the 1990s, he developed a distinct

recognised as working at the forefront of contemporary

method of painting that incorporates unconventional

abstraction in the Middle East.

materials such as glue, sand, and coal in an attempt to recreate the physical and sensory aspects of the world

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around him.

To make his textured painting Thaier creates a type of Thaier Helal’s constant search for experimental forms has

paste using shredded recycled paper mixed with acrylic

led him to include diverse media, arriving at approaches

and other chemicals.

Above

On the right

Installation shot from his most recent solo at our Alserkal space

Untitled, 2018, Mixed media on canvas

Fracture’, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2018 Thaier Helal ‘Abyss’, Mixed media on paper, 2020-2021

Qalamoun Mountains II, 2014, Mixed media on canvas Sky Line, 2012, Acrylic on canvas Untitled, 2018, Mixed media on canvas Bird’s Eye View, 2021, Acrylic on canvas

Emerging |Elias Izoli (Syria, b. 1976) Born in Damascus, Syria in 1976, Izoli lives and works in the

has inspired the artist to create works that are balanced

city.

between intimacy and invasiveness.

A self-taught realist painter whose creativity was harnessed at an exceptionally young age, Elias Izoli’s

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talents were recognized early on. With consummate draftsmanship, a marked command of colour, and

While trying to break the boundaries, and creating more

an intensive approach to capturing his subjects, Izoli’s

depth and texture, Elias delved into a collage technique,

compositions reinvent conventional portraiture. Izoli’s

in which he would create relief in the background of his

works comment on the rise of consumerist escapism,

acrylic by collaging canvas shapes onto the canvas.

which has desensitized our capacity for compassion and empathy. Having a career spanning over two decades,

Elias produced a body of work in hommage to Syrian

Izoli’s works investigate the motif of children caught in

master, Louay Kayali, in which he portrays contemporary

the crossfire of violence. The impact of the Syrian war

society with references of today’s pop culture.

On the left

Above

Installation shot from one of his solos at our Beirut space

Untitled, 2017, Mixed media on canvas

Untitled, 2016, Mixed media on canvas

Untitled, 2015, Mixed media on canvas

Untitled, 2014, Mixed Media on Canvas

Untitled, 2011, Acrylic on canvas

Untitled, 2011, Acrylic on Canvas

Untitled, 2017, Mixed media on canvas

Emerging |Kais Salman (Syria, b. 1976) Embarking on a different path than that of his

of depravity, Salman unearths a world of ugliness and

contemporaries and predecessors, Kais Salman’s work

abjection through intentionally hyperbolised imagery

has been described as monochromatic, abstract

accentuated by punches of colour and aestheticised

expressionism. The artist uses satire to subvert the

forms. Political corruption, terrorism, consumerism,

normalisation of greed, narcissism, and ideological

cosmetic surgery, religious fanaticism, imperialism, and

extremism that is rapidly defining our era. As one of Syria’s

the voyeurism of the digital age have all served as topics

foremost expressionist painters, Salman has contributed to

of Salman’s carnivalesque compositions.

a decades-long artistic tradition that continues to serve as a powerful outlet for social commentary. A consummate

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formalist, he is recognised as one of the Arab world’s most accomplished painters.

Since the early 2000s, Salman has sought to reflect the psychological violence that occurs when excess

Salman has been featured in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, among other international publications, and was listed for the second time in Arabian Business’ 100 Most Powerful Arabs Under 40 in 2016.

becomes rationalised and accepted by societies. Seeking

Accompanied by Elia Izoli, Kais is the only artist on our

to confront and exorcise sociocultural manifestations

roster still living and producing in Syria.

Above

On the right

First Face, 2008, Mixed media on canvas

Magic Lantern 2, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas

Untitled, 2010, Mixed media on canvas

Untitled, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

Untitled, 2012, Mixed media on canvas

Installation shot from one of his recent solo at our Alserkal space

November exhibition | Mouteea Murad | The common pursuit of happiness Mouteea Murad’s work sees a unification of spirituality

In his most recent series, his relationship with mathematics

and formalism, continuously drawing influence from the

plays an integral role, with the Fibonacci numbers and

geometric forms and motifs of Islamic art. Murad began

sequence at its centre. His forms and lines are largely

his career as a painter working on monochromatic,

defined by algebraic functions and their geometric

expressionist compositions that depict the anguish of

application within the work. Murad continues to draw

modern man. In 2007, his work took on a renewed outlook

inspiration from Islamic art while employing forms and lines

that redirected his painting style, exploring relativity,

largely defined by algebraic functions, allowing for his

spatiality, and the visual dynamic of geometric forms.

work to see a unification of spirituality and formalism.

In his compositions, the artist builds on the breakthroughs

In his november exhibition, we recreate Mouteea’s studio and his path towards happiness and meaning through color, composition, mathematics, and much more.

Mouteea’s latest work studies symmetry in all it’s aspects, via geometry and optical illusions.

of previous movements, experimenting with automatic brushwork, the illusionistic perspective of Op art, the symmetry of geometric abstraction, and the collapsing planes of Suprematism. Highly influenced by artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.

Hope to see you at the gallery!

Above

On the right

Untitled, 2008, Acrylic on canvas

Trial No. 105, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

Trial No. 68, 2012, Acrylic on canvas

Trial No. 108; Moments from the Happy Bow, 2015, Acrylic on canvas Trial No. 106, 2015, Acrylic on canvas Trial No. 107; Moments from Childhood, 2015, Acrylic on canvas Installation shot from one of his solos at our Beirut space Trial No. 129 - The Journey of the Bird in Damascus, 2016, Acrylic on canvas Trial No. 133 - When Your Soul Got Mixed with Mine, 2016, Acrylic on canvas