Iraqi-Dutch artist Athar Jaber is marking his first solo exhibition in Dubai with a series of stone sculptures that evoke as much discomfort as awe.
Busts show human faces with features that have been pummeled in or twisted out of place. Limbs, torsos and heads emerge with Hellenistic grace and detail from marble blocks that have otherwise been left coarse and unfinished. The body parts in Jaber’s sculptures are severed and writhing. For him, they bare the weight of the modern world.
The sculptures in the exhibition Vestiges, at Ayyam Gallery, are not new, with some having been produced as far back as 2014. Yet, Jaber says the exhibition presents the work that best embody his artistic intentions.
