Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai is pleased to announce Al Sahwa (The Awakening), a solo exhibition by conceptual artist, Abdulnasser Gharem, to be held March 17 - 30 April, 2014. This is Gharem’s first solo exhibition in the Gulf since 2010, and in it the artist looks to symbols, images and events related to the recent history of the Islamic world, in order to formulate possible visions of a harmonious future for the Muslim nation. In the exhibition the artist presents new large-scale stamp paintings alongside silkscreens from Men at Work and The Stamp series.
The title of the exhibition refers to the “Al Sahwa” movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s that gained great traction in public and university life both in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East. Gharem himself was only in primary school when the “Al Sahwa” began to form within the school setting. At first, participation in the group was an extra-curricular activity but later “it began to shape the identity and growth of the students” to the point that Gharem felt the movement aimed at changing his “spiritual genes,” thus turning him into “an unintended victim.”