You might associate Yas Island with fast cars, trendy bars and restaurants quicker than you’d think of it as an art destination, but the series of Crossroads exhibitions held at The Yas Hotel is aiming to change that.
Crossroads, organised by Swiss Art Gate UAE, is designed to make art more readily accessible to the causal passerby, and to provide a platform for showcasing the work of Emirati and resident artists. Previous exhibitions at The Yas Hotel have included modern creations, such as Welsh expat Rebecca Rendell’s display of salvaged car parts on canvas, as well as paintings by Emirati artists Dr Najat Makki and Khalid Juma Ahli, which have all been met with considerable success.
We can’t say the exhibit is accessible in any practical sense of the word – even if you already happen to be in The Yas Hotel, you’ve got a significant trek through a series of lifts and corridors to actually find the paintings, which are displayed in the Marina Wing – but it’s well worth the diversion. The latest installation, Colors of Extravagance, curated by Swiss Art Gate UAE’s Kurt Blum, showcases the work of two Emirati artists, who explore themes of nature, poetry and love. Fatma Lootah, a well-established Emirati artist living in Italy, is exhibiting a series of paintings entitled ‘Ghazal’ alongside the works of emerging Dubai artist Musab Abdul Qader Al Rais called ‘Nature’.
Fatma Lootah – Ghazal
Ghazal is an ancient Arabic poetic form originating in the 6th century. Traditionally used by men to seduce women, it often has themes of love and pain, although modern usage of the word means just to flirt. These emotions are reflected on Lootah’s canvases – passionate shades of red wash into dreamy blues, creating a contrast between hot and cold. Lootah uses poems from her grandfather, Hussain Lootah, and also by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and the late Sheikh Zayed. Romantic words in Arabic such as ‘heart’ and ‘lost’ are etched into the paint, which Lootah applies in fast, frenzied sessions with her hands and feet. This technique brings an impulsive physicality to the canvas that emphasises her romantic theme. Lootah left the UAE in 1979 to study art in Washington, or, as she says, ‘to see something else’. She now lives and works in Verona, Italy.
Musab Al Rais – Nature
Musab Al Rais’s paintings use a bold palette of primary colours to represent Arabic landscapes. He layers acrylic paints, using bold oranges, blues and reds haphazardly to create scenes that suggest anything from stormy skies and seas to desert sand dunes and Arabic villages. Some of the paintings are still and peaceful, while others are rougher and more tumultuous, but all capture the force and energy of the UAE’s nature and landscape. Al Rais is the son of renowned Emirati artist Abdul Qader Al Rais, and an engineering graduate who tries to convey both his modern Emirati identity and his heritage through these ambiguous scenes.
Crossroads #2 – Colors of Extravagance – runs from June 16 until the end of August at Light Box, Marina Wing Lobby, The Yas Hotel, Abu Dhabi.
