Contemporary Middle East: Selections from the Farjam Collection

The Arts Club Dubai is thrilled to announce its eighth Stairway Exhibition: Contemporary Middle East: Selections from the Farjam Collection, an exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern artists selected from the pre-eminent art collection of Dr. Farhad Farjam.

The Farjam collection is one of the world’s foremost privately owned collections encompassing Islamic, Middle Eastern and Western art, spanning from pre-Islamic times to present and embodying a fusion of cultures and traditions between East and West. This exhibition narrows in on leading contemporary Middle Eastern artists, acquired by Dr. Farjam, showcasing some of the most cutting-edge art movements from the region.

Our Arts Club exhibition focuses in on contemporary Middle Eastern artists acquired by Dr. Farjam, showcasing some of the biggest names and most cutting-edge movements from countries such as Lebanon, Iran, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, as well as from the United Arab Emirates. The show offers a rare opportunity to see into a major private collection of museum quality art.

Among artists to be included are Emirati artist Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim (born 1962), a pioneer of conceptual art in the Middle East since the 1980s whose brightly colored, radical paintings are included in major museums worldwide; Tunisian-born artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke (born 1978), who draws on her personal history of migration across cultures and borders to create site-responsive conceptual works that have been the subject of major solo museums internationally; as well as world-renowned Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri (born 1960) whose Pop Art dialect is imbued with a subtle, subversive socio-political commentary. Other artists include Lebanese Marwan Sahmarani (born 1970), Palestinian Samia Halaby (born 1936), Iranian artist Siamak Filizadeh (born 1970) and Emirati artist Abdul Qader Al Rais (born 1951).

Together these artists represent the vibrant, ever-growing contemporary art scene in the region with dynamic works that between them examine concepts of identity, consumerism, geopolitics and universal human experience through explorations of painting, found materials, photography and other diverse media. Arts Club members and the public are invited to contemplate these museum-quality works and the ideas they embody, as well as get a rare view into a major private collection.

We are enormously grateful to Dr. Farjam and his outstanding team for their generosity and collaboration. The exhibition is curated by Amelie von Wedel and Pernilla Holmes of Wedel Art.

FIRST FLOOR

Siamak Filizadeh
From Series: Enjelha, 2012
Digital print on canvas
179.5 x 136 cm

Farhad Moshiri
First Snow 05C, 2017
Hand embroidered beads on canvas on board
156 x 175 x 4.5 cm

Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim
3 Pink Forks in Vase, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
250 x 200 cm

Marwan Sahmarani
The Passage of the Black, 2019
Oil on canvas
250 x 200 cm

SECOND FLOOR

Samia Halaby
Red and White Neighborhoods…, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
122 x 122 cm

Nadia Kaabi-Linke
Kula: Flock, 2020
Lignite grains and acrylic on paper on canvas
198 x 400 cm

Abdul Qader Al Rais
Untitled, 2011
Acrylic on canvas
200 x 300 cm

Siamak Filizadeh
From Series: Enjelha, 2012
Digital print on canvas
179.5 x 136 cm