10 Wednesday Dec 2014
The vaulted ceilings and thick stone pillars of Ada Dodge Hall find unexpected echoes in the enormous white sculptures that fill the space this winter, ghosts of the university’s past resurrected almost half a century after their creation. A two-part exhibition entitled “Trans-Oriental Monochrome: John Carswell” is currently filling both the on-campus AUB Byblos Bank Art Gallery and the nearby Rose and Shaheen Saleeby Museum.
Read More: The Many Faces of John Carswell
03 Thursday Jul 2014
Ayyam Gallery’s latest show, Syria’s Apex Generation, puts the spotlight on a new school of Syrian painting that developed in Damascus, and continues to thrive despite the disintegration of the art scene in the city. The multiple-venue show, spread across Ayyam’s two spaces in Dubai and in Beirut features recent works by Nihad Al Turk, Abdul Karim Majdal Al Beik, Othman Mousa, Mohannad Orabi, and Kais Salman. It explores the myriad ways a new generation of artists is responding to the current conflict in Syria, marking a new phase in Syrian contemporary art. But it also looks at how these artists are carrying forward the legacy of the artists who shaped Syrian visual culture for over 60 years.
Read More: Creations Reflecting the Conflict in Syria
21 Wednesday May 2014
For centuries, Arabic calligraphy was diligently studied, faithfully reproduced and carefully refined by generations of master calligraphers, revered as the pre-eminent form of art in Islamic societies where figuration was rejected in favor of the beauty of the written word. Over the past two centuries, however, perceptions of calligraphy have changed. Often dismissed as “traditional” by those who champion contemporary media, it is increasingly perceived not as art but as artisanal decoration, an attractive means of conveying meaning. Lebanon’s foremost calligrapher Samir Sayegh has been battling this shift in attitude for decades.
Read More: The Triumph of Form Over Content
21 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in Exhibitions - Middle East - Lebanon
Arab Visual Art, the exhibition now up at Gemmayzeh’s 392Rmeil393 Gallery, is comprised of 20-odd word-based, Plexiglas works, whose shapes matter as much as the meaning of the words themselves. “Each work is a poem,” artist Rola Haidar told The Daily Star. “It has a meaning and a philosophy.” Haidar’s work is indebted to classical Arabic calligraphy, obviously, but also European linguistics.
Read More: Arabic Calligraphy Meets Semiotics
