Saudi artist Ahmed Mater talks about his work involving magnetism, mirage and Mecca. Ahmed Mater: Chronicles is taking place at Christie’s headquarters located in the heart of St. James’s, London, from July 17 to August 22.

Curated by Dr. Ridha Moumni, Chairman, Christie’s Middle East and Africa and organised thematically, the exhibition will trace Ahmed Mater’s expansive career, from his first artistic experiments to his latest projects.

As an acclaimed multimedia artist working across mediums including photography, videos, paintings, sculptures and installations, the exhibition will illustrate Mater’s unique visual reflections on the transformations across the social and spiritual landscapes of Saudi Arabia, and the Arab World.

Ahmed Mater: Chronicles will trace his artistic genesis from experimental forays during medical school, his formative years in the Al-Meftaha Arts Village, and his involvement in enriching the Kingdom’s contemporary art scene with Edge of Arabia, to the laboratory of ideas and collaborations that his current studio represents.

The Christie exhibition will highlight Mater’s seminal works, which include early-career abstract paintings, the Illumination series, the celebrated Desert of Pharan photography project (featured below) and will also unveil his most recent work, including Magnetism Book.

Drawing on themes of mutation, modernisation, land, and faith, the artworks included in Ahmed Mater: Chronicles will be on loan from prestigious institutions in the Middle East, from important private collections, and from the artist’s studio.

Some of his themes involve nomadism, desert dwellings and the shifting sands of Saudi Arabia. The exhibit will also feature Mater’s upcoming AlUla exhibition.

::Ahmad Mater

The post Saudi Arabia artist Ahmed Mater featured at Christie’s in London appeared first on Green Prophet.

After several months of daily solo work, environmental activist Caroline Chaptini, a Lebanese national set another Guinness World Records title, having put together the largest bottle cap mosaic in a public park in the town of Miziara in north Lebanon. The measurement was solely dependent on the complete space area of 196.94 sqm, breaking the previous record of 108.568 sqm achieved in Japan in 2019.

Guess if you have enough time on your hands like we did during COVID then anything is possible.

Driven by her passion toward the environment, Chaptini is a second-time Guinness World Records title holder, following the achievement of the tallest plastic bottle sculpture measuring 28.1 meters in height alongside the Municipality of Chekka in December 2019.

Calling her followers to spare all bottle caps three months ago, Chaptini started to receive thousands of these from inside and outside Lebanon turning the initiative to a regional environmental cause. For her recent attempt, Chaptini collected no less than 400,000 bottle caps of five different colors including various shades of blue and white. She selected a public park next to her parents’ house in north Lebanon to create the two-dimensional mosaic depicting an image of a crescent made from bottle caps.

Using commercially available bottle caps, Chaptini glued the outer outline of the mosaic in order to withstand the high winds and weather conditions. However, the weather demolished the arrangement 4 times throughout the process, and with no one around during social distancing, she had to re-do the mosaic on her own every time. 

All the bottle caps were sent to a recycling company, which in turn generated funds that were donated to a children’s cancer organization ‘Kids First Association’, a humanitarian entity that looks after children with cancer who do not have the financial means to seek proper treatment.

“The original plan for this project was to involve volunteers from all over the country and have it displayed in a large gathering. But due to social distancing measures, I had to execute the project on my own in around 160 hours. Severe weather conditions forced me to restart multiple times. This is my gift for Lebanon, the environment and the kids of the Arab world.”

With over 100,000 bottles in Chekka, and 400,000 bottle caps in Miziara, Chaptini’s environmental achievements stood tall and proud, and sent a message of hope for a better future. 

The post Caroline Chaptini sets Guinness World Record in Lebanon with caps appeared first on Green Prophet.

If you thought that women from the Middle East and North Africa all wear drab black blankets over the head and stay home to cook dinner, these colorful photos by Moroccan-born artist Hassan Hajjaj might challenge that notion.

Based in London but heavily influenced by his roots and the reggae scene in his adopted country, Hassan Hajjaj created a series of images that show a side to Muslim women and North African culture that rarely makes mainstream news.

Kesh Angels, a collection that is currently on show at the Taymour Grahne Gallery in Tribeca, shows Marrakech “biker chicks” wearing bootleg Chanel and Louis Vuitton Abayas.

Contrary to the depressing images most commonly associated with (oppressed) Muslim women, these photos show women sporting polka dots, funky shoes, a lot of makeup, heart-shaped sunglasses, and all kinds of good-natured attitude.

(See also ‘Eco-Hijabs’ on the rise)

Many of the women depicted in Kesh Angels are friends of Hajjaj, a master photographer who frequently designs the clothing that his models wear in shoots.

Hajjaj is a versatile artist whose repertoire includes portraiture, installation, interior designed (including recycled furniture made from recycled Coca-Cola crates and aluminum cans), but this is the first time that he has had a solo show in New York.

Founded by the same art collector behind the blog Art of the Middle East, which celebrates the unique creative talent bursting from the MENA region, the Taymour Grahne Gallery will showcase this fantastic series through 8 March, 2014.

The post Marrakech biker chicks wear bootleg Chanel and Louis Vuitton Abayas appeared first on Green Prophet.

It was the brainchild of gallery owner and Street Art impresario Medhi Ben Cheikh. Supported by Paris officials, he already had a history of attracting popular street artists to his 13th arrondissement neighborhood to paint large murals.  When he learned that a building overlooking the Seine was to be knocked down, he hatched this monumental “art-lab”.

“It has been quite a thrill,” he told the Wall Street Journal. A decade ago, the former high-school art teacher opened his Galerie Itinerrance in Paris, cultivating contacts with the likes of American graphic designer Shepard Fairey (made famous for his Obama “Hope” poster) and Green Prophet fave, Franco-Tunisian Arab calligraphist eL Seed.

Ben Cheikh invited 105 visual artists from 18 countries to redecorate the structure.  (Its 36 apartments formerly housed railroad workers.)  Each time he learned a street artist was coming to Europe, he’d reach out to pull them aboard his project.

Artists worked for seven months to “graff” 4,500 square meters of interiors, façades and stairwells, donating their work in exchange for accommodation and materials.  All were cool with the notion that their art would be destroyed with the building.

The end product was a wild mosaic of street-art trends, including works by artists from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

The Iranian street artist A1one combined Arabic calligraphy with stunning portraiture (images above and below).

Paris-based artist Rodolphe Cintorino created a horrifying vision of war-torn Syria, hanging dozens of empty spray paint cans over a map of the country, symbolizing bombs in mid-air.

The variety of styles is captured in the short video below:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/LGVyZOV1oM8[/youtube]

Calligraphy by el Seed covered one of the outside walls (see lead image).

“Even if Arabic calligraphy is standardized, [el Seed] reinvented a new typography just like the first street artists did using Latin letters inside speech bubbles,” Ben Cheikh explains. The new Arabic script “puts across a very contemporary image of the Arab world and Arab identity.”

Maryam was one of two Saudi women who painted dressed in hijab. “Maryam and her sister graff all year in Jeddah,” says Ben Cheikh. “Even with all the restrictions, you can try to live your passion.”

El Seed has conducted graffiti workshops in Doha and Jeddah but thinks the Saudi capital is a tougher audience. “It’s stricter there,” he says. “I can’t imagine someone graffing in Riyadh.”

The Tour Paris 13 project goes entirely digital for the next two weeks, so if you missed the actual exhibit there’s still a chance to check out the images online.

All images from Galerie Itinerrance

The post Paris Tower “Graffed” by Arab Street Artists, Then Destroyed (VIDEO) appeared first on Green Prophet.

The 31-year-old mural artists spent four months working on the mural, which opened on Sunday night to a crowd of eager onlookers.

Commissioned by the Jordan Directorate of Arts and Theater in Amman, the region’s largest mural depicts the progression of arts in the Arab world, and pays particular attention to the ancient Nabatean people who built the remarkable city of Petra circa 312BCE.

(Learn about the most popular Couchsurfing host in Jordan, a cave dweller from Petra.)

Water-smart people who understood the ways of the desert, the ancient Nabateans were among the first artists and agricultural specialists in the region, and their history has been carved into a section of the massive mural that took four months of hard work to complete.

One of the artists’s friends, Huda Kaoud, told Albawaba that Haltam wore no gloves to complete the project. Instead he used his bare hands, and said very little about his accomplishments.

In addition to documenting other archaeological sites such as Greco-Roman ruins from the ancient cities of Petra and Jerash, the mural depicts music, sculpture and theater that developed throughout the ages.

Nothing is surprising about the Arab world’s artistic achievements, although it might be for outsiders taught that the Arab world is overrun by overzealous fundamentalists intent on turning us all into raging Jihadis, but it is exciting to see that historical development cast in a storied, permanent light that will inspire future Arab artists to cherish their rich heritage.

Haltam studied art at Jordan’s Yarmouk University before traveling the region to work on various commissions and now he is working as the resident artist for the Jordanian Ministry of Culture.

:: Story and image via Albawaba

The post Middle East’s Largest Mural Was Carved Out of Cement appeared first on Green Prophet.

In his solo exhibition Fun with Fen (fen is Arabic for “art”) currently on display at Dubai’s Meem Gallery, the Bahraini artist Mohammed Kanoo depicts international celebrities dressed in traditional Arab costume. Kanoo’s digitally enhanced photographs are described as humorous commentary on pop culture, but the reactions they provoke may be a bit darker.
[brid video=”134808″ player=”7642″ title=”Mohamed Kanoo Meem Gallery”]
Take a peek at a few images from his gallery and gauge your own response.

The portraits play with our perception, specific to social tolerance and international diplomacy. Politicians, musicians, and Hollywood movies stars are all fair game. Clint Eastwood and John Travolta sport keffiyeh: Angelina Jolie rocks her hijab. Free makeovers go to actors Hugh Laurie and Will Smith. Royal cutie Prince William trades in his crown.  Dead people can play dress-up too: see Josef Stalin and Amy Winehouse model headscarves.

But the image of Barack Obama, particularly in this election year, is a powder keg.  Hilary Clinton is included, but where is Mitt Romney?

In the past few weeks, the images have gone viral.

This particular series is entitled, “A Question of Identity (2012)”. It’s the artist’s newest poke at diplomacy, politics, and religion.

The Meem exhibition is broader than these provocative photos; it includes the Kanoo’s paintings Abayya Army and the Red Balloon, Catching Fish, and Henna Stop Sign.

Kanoo is self-taught.  Starting as a painter, his work now embraces applied media, photography and Arab calligraphy.

His recent works pay homage to artists he holds as influential: AraMao is based on Andy Warhol’s portrait of Chairman Mao; and Kanoo reinterprets Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa, replacing Mount Fuji with Dubai’s Burj Al Arab.

His earlier paintings have been in the Pop Art style of Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. One of his first works was a portrait of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late founder of the United Arab Emirates, and a personal hero of Green Prophet’s Green Sheik.

The artist draws inspiration from his Islamic and Gulf roots. He is one of the founders of the Ghaf Art Gallery, the first art gallery in Abu Dhabi, established in 2006.

There is a tension in his work.  He interprets popular culture whilst respecting the artistic prohibitions of his faith. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, Kanoo has focused on advancing an artistic platform that presents an alternative and positive view of contemporary Arabia.

In the case of his altered portraits, he invites us to imagine what we’d look like if we swapped each other’s clothing. The experience can make us conscious of cultural preconceptions we hadn’t really considered.  Awareness is a necessary first step towards understanding. It can start a dialogue that destroys false preconceptions.  A picture’s worth a thousand words, indeed.

It’s encouraging to see growing recognition in the West of artists from the Middle East, whether through high-brow venues in major cities or accesible street art everywhere.

In a statement though Meem, Kanoo says, “The bottom line is that tolerance is an important aspect of our faith as Arabs and Muslims. Contemporary human difficulties are common problems for all humanity.  That is what brings us together”.

If you are in Dubai, drop in to the Meem Art Gallery.  Exhibition ends July 5.  Check out the gallery’s site for more information.

And if you’re not lucky enough to be local, this short film will bring you to the party.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqsXGDgf-XU[/youtube]

Images via Meem Art Gallery

The post Mohammed Kanoo Shows How Arab Culture Is Never Black and White appeared first on Green Prophet.

Paris art exhibit tackles Islamic taboos in a show aimed at broadening Western views of Mid East culture.

Oooh la la…The Body Uncovered, at Paris’ Arab World Institute (AWI), presents two hundred controversial paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos that tackle variations of a provocative theme: the naked body. A mix of art forms created by over 70 Arab artists spotlight subtexts rarely exposed in Arab culture: sensuality, violence against women, and homosexuality.

Renaud Muselier, AWI chairman, says the exhibition strives to “challenge stereotypes usually associated with the Arab world that reduce it to the single image of religious fanaticism. It is intended instead to echo the reality of an Arab art scene that exists despite the conservative climate, dares to overcome taboos and manages to find a place in the global contemporary art scene.”

Given the spicy subject, the number of participants is remarkable. Their artwork is broadly themed and richly rendered. The modern and contemporary pieces bow to forerunners in the Arab art world dating back to the late 19^th century.  Turn-of-that-century painters from Lebanon, Syria and Egypt frequently studied in Europe where they experimented in nude painting and drawing that was forbidden back home. As with their literary compatriots in the Arab Renaissance, the artists were open to Western ideas which they melded with their Eastern heritage.

The exhibition, on view through July 15, was curated by Hoda Makram-Ebeid and Philippe Cardinal. “We hope to show the Middle Eastern public that there are Arabs who dare to explore this subject that has been hidden by a certain hypocrisy in the Arab world.  And to show the Western public that there are artists who show, think, and act in ways other than according to the stereotypes of Arab society,” Makram-Ebeid told ARTINFO France.

Contemporary artists includes photographer Youssef Nabil with his Orientalist-inspired photograph “Natacha Sleeping”, and painter Ghada Amer, whose works depict female figures with their legs wildly akimbo.

Humor abounds, as in Mehdi-Georges Lahlou‘s photograph “Mouvement décomposé,” which shows the artist performing a belly dance in women’s clothing . Zoulikha Bouabdellah also riffs on bellydancing, with a video of the dance performed to the Marseillaise.

Co-curator Philippe Cardinal said “When there are social taboos, the role of artists is to unravel them at the seams: they are the first to rebel against censorship.”

But it’s not all about titillation.  The body is also shown in a social and political context. Iraqi artist Adel Abidin‘s video “Ping-Pong” shows men playing ping-pong with a naked woman in place of a net. Her skin is marked with red circles left by missed shots, her body shudders each time she’s hit. The woman represents “the Iraqi people caught in the midst of war,” said Makram-Ebeid. It’s also a metaphor for the oppression of women.

Homosexuality, forbidden in Arab countries, is represented in Lebanese-American George Awde’s photographs of young men in Beirut, shirtless, embracing.  An his 2009 video “Comradeship”, Egyptian artist Mahmoud Khaled features a bodybuilder flexing his muscles, clad in a form-fitting bathing suit.

There’s also a man rubbing oil onto another bodybuilder’s muscles. The accompanying text says in both Arabic and English: “I have taken courage to challenge myself and you have taken time to allow this to affect you. The payoff is well worth it.”

Tarik Essalhi‘s sculpture “Abu Ghraib” depicts a prisoner as a modern day Saint Sebastian. Palestinian artist Hani Zurob opts for a less direct interpretation of captivity in a blue painted portrait  representing his own incarceration in an Israeli prison.

Zena el-Khalil‘s mixed media “Beefsteak” shows three bearded men, one of them holding a machine gun, all wearing girls’ dresses. It refers to “all the television images she saw as a child. Images of war, Michael Jackson videos, and Barbie dolls; kitsch remained and got mixed together in her mind,” according to Makram-Ebeid. “The world is made of contradictions; everything happens so fast — in hybrid fashion, she shows war and the levity of childhood in a kind of blur.”

Huguette Caland, a Lebanese painter now resident in California, looms large as the show’s powerhouse. The daughter of the first president of Lebanon, she splashed onto the 1960′ s art scene with her oversized monochromatic body part paintings. “Now she’s 83, and she was a pioneer at the beginning of women’s liberation,” Makram-Ebeid said. “She dared to work on the body, nudity, and women’s sexuality.”

While most of these artists were born in Arab countries, they now live and work mainly in Europe and the United States. It’s unlikely the exhibition would ever travel to Arab countries, and improbable that such art would be openly produced in Islamic states. To date, there has been no critical backlash.

For those not able to step into the Paris gallery, a virtual visit to the artists’ websites will allow a fuller view of these remarkable and provocative works.

:: Arab World Institute

Images of a still from Adel Abidin’s video “Ping-Pong; Youssef Nabil’s “Natacha Sleeping”; Mehdi-Georges Lahlou’s photograph “Mouvement décomposé; and George Awde’s “Quiet Crossing” all courtesy of Arab World Institute

The post Arabs Undressed, Artfully appeared first on Green Prophet.