Visit us from July 1st for ‘Tajammul’, a group exhibition bringing together sixteen artists that capture the aesthetics of the evolving art landscape in the contemporary Middle East.
About the Artists
Basil Alkazzi
B. 1938. Basil Alkazzi is a Kuwait-born British visual artist, of Saudi Arabian-Kuwaiti heritage. His passion for art began in early childhood, he attended the Central School of Art in London (now Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London). In 1986, he established the Basil Alkazzi Scholarship at the Royal College of Art in London; and a year later in 1987, established the Basil H. Alkazzi Award for young and emerging American painters. Through the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Alkazzi established in 2010 two biennial awards.
Hussein Al-Mohasen
B. 1971. Visual artist Hussein Al-Mohasen has been active in the art world in the Gulf region since his first appearance in 1999 at the Al-Janadriya Festival in his native Saudi Arabia, since then he has since then occupied a place alongside the pioneering Saudi artists. Behind the obvious simplicity of his works lurks a decades-long journey shaped by poetry from the Arab world and the complex intersections between modern spaces and personal freedoms. Al Mohasen’s work is visually global and overcomes regional paradigms, presenting the contemporary Arab experience after the fashion of the poetry and music that inspired him: In the end, we all speak the same language. Hussein Al Mohasen’s work has been exhibited all over the Middle East since 1999.
Charlotte de Bekker
Charlotte de Bekker is an award-winning filmmaker and artist based in the Netherlands. She spent the majority of her childhood in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, going on to study both Film and Philosophy at NYU Abu Dhabi. Charlotte uses what she has learnt from her basis of being a filmmaker in the science, education and documentary fields, and ties this in with themes of futurism, nature, and folklore.
Debjani Bhardwaj
Debjani was born in Kolkata, India and completed her Masters in Business Management at Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi , India . She started her career as a financial analyst in New Delhi. She later moved into the field of art in the year 2007 and completed MA Fine Arts at the Open College of the Arts, UK. She is a multidisciplinary artist and expresses herself through sculpture (ceramics, paper), illustration, papercuts and printmaking. She has illustrated two children’ s books “World Tales “, a book of folk tales written by the students of Dubai International Academy (2009 ) and “A Magic Place” , a book of short stories used by middle school children in India (2010).
CC (Alireza Asbahi)
Born in 1969 in Tehran, CC’s artistic journey is a fascinating blend of personal experiences and cultural influences. At a young age, CC had to take the responsibility of being the head of his family, which shaped his outlook on life and his creative pursuits. It was during his time working at a clothing manufacturing company that he discovered his passion for art. Drawing inspiration from his father, who was a tailor, CC began experimenting with collaging and layering techniques, using an old sewing machine as his tool to craft intricate pieces. CC’s art is a reflection of his deep connection to Iranian history and culture, with a particular focus on exploring the aesthetics and symbolism of traditional iconography, such as the Lion and the Sun. His works exude a raw and powerful energy, blending patterns and colors in a way that is both understated and impactful.
With a distinct and recognizable style, CC has established himself in the art world. His ability to breathe new life into ancient forms while preserving their timeless beauty is a testament to his skill and unwavering dedication to his craft.
Imran Channa
B. 1981. Imran Channa is a Pakistani visual artist. Channa’s primary interest is in historical documentation and how that documentation creates narratives, information and misinformation. He finds that historical narratives and the documents that create or support them are limited in scope and complexity. He uses drawing, moving image, installation and digital technology as means to re-examine historical documents and their influence, so inviting audiences to contemplate the contradictions of how we record and understand history.
Elizabeth Dorazio
The artist was born and raised in Araguari, deep in the Brazilian hinterland. Currently residing in Dubai, she works between Brazil and the UAE. Her practice draws on the visual cultures and popular techniques of both “homes”. Dorazio studied Visual Arts at the Guignard University of Art (Fundação Escola Guignard) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, later specializing in Ancient Italian Art Techniques at the Institute for Art and Restoration (Istituto per L’Arte e il Ristauro), Florence, Italy, and finally, in Germany at the Abendschule, Staedelschule. She studied art history under Rodrigo Naves, one of Brazil’s foremost art critics and scholars. Dorazio’s practice centers on mixed-media works and installations. To skim through her myriad bodies of works is to glimpse a fascination with instability, shifting surfaces, the cosmic, the organic, the cellular, and skin. While she remains faithful to a certain technical classicism (drawing, etching, the use of egg tempera), she also disrupts through material (x-ray fragments, chair caning) and scale. Upstream, her works are process-driven; on reception, they seem urgent and interactive. The artist has exercised her skills as a curator in the exhibitions Existenzielle Korrespondenzen (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo, 2016), Blue Connection (Frankfurt am Main/São Paulo/Sorocaba, 2010-11) and Schweizer 9 (Frankfurt am Main, 2008).
Oussama Garti
Born in Rabat, he is a Moroccan architectural designer and artist trained at the Architectural Association in London. Fascinated by the infinite amount of similarities between macro and micro elements around him, Garti explores the idea of perception and works with an extensive research to produce his work. His environment and observations fuel his creative process. He also uses numerous tools to explore remote locations and builds a digital library of natural textures in different scales. He magnifies “moments” and celebrates their complexity on his canvas. With his immersive work, Oussama Garti takes us on a journey full of poetry and lyricism. Oussama is also the co-founder of INTERVAL, a non-profit cultural initiative that aims to widen access to art, invite different actors to debate around a range of topics, and support projects with high social impact in the MENA region.
Mahmoud Hamadani
B. 1958 Iran, lives in New York. Mahmoud Hamadani’s works have been shown at The British Museum, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, as well as numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York, London, Dubai, Lausanne, Beirut and Hong Kong. He is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The British Museum. He is a recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. Hamadani earned a BA in Mathematics from State University of New York and a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
David Howarth
Associate Dean and Associate Professor in Graphic Design at the College of Arts & Creative Enterprises – Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. David earned an MA in Communication Design from the University of Salford, England. David is currently working on a Typography project connected to Land Art, inspired by the ecology of Sir Banyas Island.
Richard Ketley
B. 1964, Johannesburg, South Africa. Richard has painted since a young age and held his first solo exhibition while in school at Hyde Park High School, Johannesburg. During his early years he exhibited at Artist in the Sun, at the Sandton Gallery, Johannesburg, and also participated in an exhibition at the National Galley in Kampala, Uganda. Today Richard works principally in charcoal, acrylic and oil, and seeks to develop images that are drawn from life but extend the viewer’s imagination.
Behdad Lahooti
B.1976. Behdad Lahooti is an Iranian sculptor and an active member of the association of Iranian sculptors. He has years of experiences as director and general secretary of Tehran Sculpture Biennial, national Sculpture Expositions, and other sculpture-related events under his belt while cooperating with various Iranian art galleries, such as Aaran Art gallery and Hedayat Art Gallery as an artist and has had several solo and group exhibitions so far. He has experienced with a wide variety of materials over his long years of activity as a sculptor. Although his skill in working with varying kinds of metals has been particularly appreciated, he frequently uses wood, plaster, resin, ceramic, fabric, and many others in his creative process. New materials and techniques are always welcomed in Lahooti’s pieces and his art is characterized by implementing modern techs and processes. Distinctive and varied periods can be seen in the works of this prolific artist, distinguishable for one another in terms of forms and manners of dealing with subject matters. Nonetheless, social issues remain the key theme in his works and events in the world and Middle-East, wars, and news exert a big impact on him. Lahooti’s work has been well received by art enthusiasts dues their aesthetic qualities, both formal and visual, as well as their skillful construction. Although his works fascinate viewers by their sheer beauty at first sight, they provoke thought in all of them too.
Colleen Quigley
Colleen Quigley is a Japanese-American visual artist based in Tucson, Arizona. Her practice encompasses a broad range of media including sculpture, installation, painting, encaustic, and digital fabrication. Colleen Quigley’s research interests include postmodern strategies of making in relation to themes of materiality, perception, memory and place, and the transcultural flow of objects. Her work has been exhibited in Italy, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and the U.A.E.
Tor Seidel
Tor Seidel is a German artist, curator, and lecturer with extensive experience teaching art at universities, as well as in the gallery and exhibition sectors.
Moussa Tiba
B. 1939 D. 2014. Moussa Tiba studied at the Beirut Fine Arts Institute and later pursued further education in London, Rome, and other regions, exploring various artistic mediums. His style transitioned from figuration to abstraction in the 1970s, with watercolor becoming central to his work. Tiba’s art reflects a fusion of Western and Eastern influences, focusing on themes of creation, peace, and the regeneration of life. Tiba’s work has been exhibited internationally in Lebanon, France, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Kuwait, and Brazil. His pieces are held in major collections, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chartres, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and UNESCO in Beirut. His family home in Qana has been converted into a museum dedicated to his art and also displays works by other prominent artists.
Morteza Zahedi
Born in 1978, Rasht, Iran and lives in Tehran. He started his artistic career at the age of 15, working as a professional graphic designer, children’s book illustrator, painter and sculptor. As of 2011, he is also an outsider art collector, curator, and galleris
About XVA Gallery
XVA Gallery is one of the leading galleries in the Middle East that specializes in contemporary art from the Arab world, Iran, and the Subcontinent. Exhibitions focus on works by the region’s
foremost artists as well as those emerging onto the scene. The gallery’s artists express their different cultural identities and perspectives while challenging the viewer to drop prejudices and borders. XVA Gallery and XVA Art Hotel are located in Dubai’s heritage district, now called Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood. XVA founded and organized the Bastakiya Art Fair from 2007-2010 as part of its commitment to raising the profile of contemporary art practice in Dubai.
For more information:
Carina Vicente
Gallery Co-ordinator
Email: carina@xvagallery.com
T: 04 353 5383 M: +971 56 959 8268