This is very much the second coming of Salwa Zeidan. We’ve seen her before, back in 1994, when her first UAE gallery opened in the capital, but by her own admission, it wasn’t the right time. ‘The gallery closed because the people were not as open, not as ready as now.’ Swathed in a black dress, long dark hair hanging confidently around her shoulders, Ms Zeidan is now giving it another go.
Opening any gallery is not without risk, particularly when you are bankrolling it yourself, but Salwa is counting on two certainties: firstly, her own talent as an artist and curator, and secondly, the city itself. ‘They are building millions of dollars of artistic projects: the museums, the Guggenheim. Abu Dhabi is saying to the world that it is going to be a place for art,’ she enthuses.
Money breeds money, and the wealth of art lovers the Capital’s plans are likely to attract come 2012 ensures a ready-made audience; but interestingly, Salwa Zeidan has her eyes fixed firmly on wooing a more local crowd. ‘I think Abu Dhabi is ready, and people are ready to receive the gallery. There are so many art collectors among the Emiratis now; they are more open to deal with the art.’
Salwa certainly knows her audience. Having first come to live in the Emirates in 1979, she talks now of ‘contributing to the evolution’ of the city. Attracting the non-profit Emirati art group The Flying House as her opening exhibition is a good start. ‘They represent three generations. I know most of them and most of their work. I wanted to say hello again by reintroducing them to Abu Dhabi.’
Certainly the gallery opening generated enough interest to suggest that Salwa is a shrewd judge, and her artistic eye is unquestioned: when her first gallery opened 15 years ago, it showcased a group of emerging Lebanese artists including the works of Mohammad Rawas and Ali Shams, now both established figures on the Middle East art scene. The space itself is a converted villa, complete with iron staircase, marble floors and cream walls, and monthly exhibitions will feature artists primarily from within the Arab world, she tells me.
But we are about to see Salwa the artist replace Salwa the curator. In Light is her first exhibition to be shown at the new gallery. She notoriously dislikes explaining her paintings, but the show will represent the last few years of her work. ‘It will present a state of mind that is very spiritual and peaceful, and it has a message,’ she says. ‘Everything should be in light. It is a purification era. It is a time when people have to be in light, work for their own light, be in touch with their own inner self and inner light.’
Salwa talks in deep, sensuous tones, stopping only to allow an occasional smile to broaden across her face. She is a charismatic personality: part-earth mother, part-student of life, part saleswoman. Her work is abstract, spiritual and deeply personal. She is an intuitive, self-taught artist, albeit one who had the benefit in her youth of private lessons in art history from a number of respected Lebanese artists and lecturers. When she speaks of light (her favourite topic), it carries an ethereal quality, stemming from a personality that tries for positiveness in everything around her, and readily translates to Salwa’s own life. She became a Peace Ambassador to Lebanon for the World Marker Project in 2005, something which informs her work and her life.
Despite the fledgling nature of the local scene, Salwa believes there is already a strong artistic network. ‘Now I am trying to collect as many people as I can; people who are ready to do something different in Abu Dhabi. It’s a community. I want all the galleries to work with me. I’m not here to provoke negative energy; I want to spread a positive energy to everyone.’
It is perhaps a sign of the snowball effect upon Abu Dhabi’s cultural ambitions that as Salwa’s exhibition draws to a close, a second new gallery opens this month, on February 18. With connections to Dubai’s Art Andalus Gallery, the loft-art Acento Gallery previously operated from Dubai’s free zone, but having organised The Art of Mexico Revealed exhibition in the Ghaf Gallery last year, and with a slew of talented young South American artists attached, it has relocated to the capital.
These are undoubtedly the beginnings of an artistic revolution in Abu Dhabi. Salwa’s positivity is well-founded, and her aim to create, ‘a place for anybody who loves art and culture’, looks about to be realised. As she begins to spread her influence over the city’s art community, it seems we’re all about to see the light.
Salwa Zeidan Gallery (02 666 9656), Al Arabi Street opens Sun-Thu, 10am-8pm; Sat 3pm-8pm. Acento Gallery (050 847 6772), Meena Port Area, opens on February 18.
