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JEDDAH: “New Art in the Middle East, Chapter I,” an exhibition of 11 Arab artists from the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, was opened by Princess Reem Al-Faisal at R-Gallery on Tuesday. It will run for a whole month.
Princess Reem Al-Faisal the founder of R-Gallery with her co-partner Mona Abdullah Haraghi, set up the exhibition of Middle East artists with the aim of giving them space, so they do not have to follow the forced standard set by Western media.
Princess Reem herself is an artist and owned a gallery in the UAE, “Empty Quarter,” only for photography. This is her second initiative to give space to Arab artists to express themselves freely.
“Our project is not pretentious. We have no plans to contribute to promoting local and regional art and artists, and at the same time put on display international art in the Kingdom. Through this exhibition we want to promote and present a new face of art in the Middle East, real expressions of local and regional artists, and establish a space where artists can express themselves without surrendering to any hierarchy to any sort of uniformity,” she said.
She said the Western media always criticize Arab artists and artists are forced to create certain artwork and are given no space for natural expression. The Western media choose certain criteria and ignore the rest of the artwork, which doesn’t mean that Arab artists don’t have talent.
“Through this platform, we want to give freedom to artists from the Middle East and Saudi Arabia,” she explained.
She also said that they hope more artists will join the journey from different parts of the Middle East, as the exhibition is a changing and shifting exhibition, which is why they gave it the name— “New Art in the Middle East Chapter 1.” It will go on a world tour in the future.
Princess Reem loved to work as patron of black and white photography, and her work is also on display in the exhibition. Recently she shifted to digital and color art, and her new work will be on display very soon in a solo exhibit in Riyadh.
Artists also participating in the exhibition are Mohammed Al Shammarey (Iraq), Abdul Aziz Ashour (KSA), Fatima Al Nemer (KSA), Saad bin Mohammed (KSA), Fatima Al-Shebani (Qatar), Mattar bin Lahej (UAE), Eman Al Harbi (KSA), Zaman Jassim (KSA), Adam Abd Elghaffar (Egypt), Ansam (KSA) and Anhar (KSA).
Esaa Angawi, the famous Saudi photographer, said that the exhibition gave new artists an excellent chance to the talented to express themselves. “I appreciate the young photographers who started with high-quality work from the beginning, with good knowledge and ideas; also the painters presented good work. The exhibition is different from regular exhibitions, which is a good thing,” he said.
Basama Al-Kahrijee, a business woman in the Kingdom, expressed delight on the display of the artwork from Middle East artists. As for her, it was very inspiring to see such names of artists and their work to expose this culture to the visitors of the exhibition.
© Arab News 2016
