Art 15: London Global Art Fair

Wadi Finan Art Gallery Participated in the third edition of Art 15 London’s global art fair, from 21-23 May 2015 showcasing 150 of the world’s most exciting galleries from the 40 countries, Alongside tightly curated gallery sections, a public programme of talks and panel discussions, expert-led tours, artist installations and projects and specially curated initiatives will run parallel to the fair.

Exhibiting artisits:

Resmi Al Kafaji was born in Diwaniya, Iraq.  In 1977, he moved to Florence, Italy, where he continues to reside.  Through his art, a rich blend of memories interpreted in a combination of different styles, Al Kafaji demonstrates the universality of art.  To him, art has no national boundaries.

Semaan Khawam was born in Damascus, Syria and moved to Beirut, Lebanon in 1988 where he continues to live and work.  Drawing upon his experience of his life in both countries, Khawam uses his work to explore his identity through his own notion of personal freedom. Birds as signifiers of freedom, are a recurrent theme in Khawam’s work who has managed to find an elusive freedom within limiting constraints.

Annie Kurkdjian was born in Lebanon and continues to live and work in Beirut.  Deeply affected by the Lebanese Civil War as a child, Kurkdjian’s paintings reveal the profound depth of this experience and its impact on her.  She describes her works as ‘existential’ paintings in which she explores people and their relationships with each other and the spaces they inhabit. 

Hossam Dirar was born in Cairo, Egypt, where he lives today. The multi-disciplinary Dirar works across painting, photography, installation, video and graphic design. His works are conceived as a re-interpretation of Egypt’s rich visual heritage, overlapping between the multi-cultural character of Cairo, the city’s complex and ever expanding urban façade, the region’s traditional iconography and the influence of contemporary media in shaping cultural referents.

 Mohammad Tamimi produces intensely personal acrylic on canvas paintings that are an exploration of his own identity. ‘One cannot fully understand oneself without delving into ‘the other’’, that part of the psyche that is not immediately obvious or visible except through introspection.  It is through this process of exploration that Tamimi traverses an allegorical inner world populated by impish creatures who squint at the viewer over their large noses, disengaged, as if unperturbed by the intrusion. 

 Alia Al Farsi’s art is informed by her Omani heritage and inspired by Rumi’s poetry, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

 After a career in government that spanned seventeen years, the award-winning Al Farsi gave up her job to pursue her art fulltime. Al Farsi holds an MBA from Bedfordshire University and studied graphic design at Central Saint Martin.

 Fadi Daoud’s varied influences include Seurat’s pointillism, Picasso’s cubism and the complex geometry of Islamic Art.  Experimenting ‘obsessively’ with different styles for the better part of two decades, he developed a technique uniquely his own, creating his final image by first drawing large broad outlines and then filling them with meticulously drawn coloured lines.  His large paintings of musicians and dervishes recall a rich era of pan Arab culture and inspire a deep nostalgia for a past that he is too young to recall.

Besher Koshaji was born in Syria in 1983. Currently residing in Jordan, Besher finds himself continuously reminiscent of the beauty that was Syria, consumed by vivid memories of his past that have now been distorted by the war.

 and a Muslim country with the highest levels of craftsmanship and arabesque art one can see why his geometric and linear technique comes so naturally to him.