The exhibition “In the Footsteps of Cai Lun II,” featuring works by artists who use drawing and printmaking as their main mediums, is on view at the Ayyam Gallery in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue through September 5.
‘New Orleans Harbor’ by Samia Halab
This exhibition’s title references the Chinese official credited as the inventor of the modern papermaking process and “assembles a group of artists who have used drawing and printmaking as primary media,” the gallery’s site states. Among them is acclaimed Palestinian artist Halaby, whose painted silkscreen proof is typical of her pioneering works of contemporary abstraction.
Nothing is Certain…’ by Athier Mousawi
“Nothing is Certain, Everything is Melting, and that’s Okay 14” is the full title of this piece, which echoes the gallery’s assessment of the work of this Iraqi artist as “studies of color and spatial composition.” It’s also a great illustration of how he frequently employs three-dimensional elements and finds a balance between fluid organic forms and hard-edged geometric shapes.
The Vanquished’ by Nihad Al-Turk
The exhibition describes “the persistence of man amid the power battles of good and evil” as one of the main themes of the Syrian artist’s work. Like this piece from 2015, his “labored portraits of dissident Syrians” “show the frantic nature of the painter’s hand as he depicts stylized figures with exquisite detail using a ballpoint pen.”