For The Rising resumes, and this time with the Egyptian budding graphic artist Ahmad Saad. He grew up and lives in Ismailia, the home city of the Suez canal. Saad shares that since he was kid, he sparked interest in art. Trying to apply to the fine arts college, Ahmad failed the efficiency test that led him to study and earn a Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems.

Upon graduation, Saad found that he’s still interested in art and got an artist in him yearning to be set loose. With a lot of free time, as he say, it enabled him to nurture the artist in him and explored different artistic hobbies that he never imagined to experiment with. Saad still believes he needs to raise to the occasion in order to reach a good level of artistry.

“Drugs won’t benefit you” – Inspired by the short film “The Advertisement”

Saad derived inspiration from international street and urban art, such as; stencils, graffiti and so on. He focused on creating graffiti in Arabic. Saad does this in an attempt to prove to the world that a lot of Arabs were major contributors and teachers of the current civilised world. Saad is also inspired by Arabi typography, video games and music videos. He also finds inspiration from Arabic artists he explored their work; both on Fann 3arabi and Khatt Foundation. Saad dreams of curating and hosting the first Arabic Urban Arts Exhibition.

Here is a sample of his work (Click to Enlarge):

• Visit Ahmad Saad’s deviantART gallery
• Ahmad’s Profile on Khatt

Edge of Arabia is an art exhibition displaying in London, UK where it showcases the new wave of contemporary art of 17 Saudi artists.  Artists participating include; Faisal Samra, Manal Al Dowayan, Abdulnasser Gharem, Lulwah Al-Humoud, Ahmad Mater Aseeri and much more.

The exhibition aims to reveal and empower the unknown voice of the Saudi artists. The exhibition does not come through a propaganda-approach to try and eradicate the negative notions and impressions of the country, yet it desires to create a long-lasting channel to communicate through freely and constantly.

Quote from Ahmad Mater Aseeri:

“What I like about ‘Edge of Arabia’ is that it takes the challenge as opposed to just speaking about the necessity or urgency of doing so. Now it is ‘Edge of Arabia’s’ job to communicate with the world in a positive way, and above all to illuminate.”

Here are the exhibition details:

• When:
  Sunday 16 November 2008
• Until:
  Saturday 13 December 2008
• Where:
  Brunei Gallery at SOAS University of London
  10 Thornhaugh St, London – UK
  WC1H 0XG
  Russell Square
• Contact:
  +44 (0)20 7898 4915
  gallery@soas.ac.uk
• Visit:
  • Edge of Arabia Website
  • SOAS Page

You can also visit the online shop and purchase from a very interesting collection of items. The selection includes the book of the exhibiton, prayer beads, t-shirts, Moleskine notebooks, postcards and more.

• Visit Online Shop

This is to announce that by next week the Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya will be commencing with a very large number of films to be screened in Beirut, Lebanon. With 10 feature films, 15 Shorts, 18 Documentaries and more.

Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya is a non-competitive biennial film festival for independent cinema and video productions from the Arab world, organized by Beirut DC. The festival’s details are as follows:

• When:
  Friday 17 October 2008 8:00 PM
• Until:
  26 October 2008
• Where:
  Beirut DC
  Furn El-Chebback, Selim El-Khoury Street
  Beirut – Lebanon
• Contact:
  ayam[at]beirutdc[dot]org
• Visit:
  • Ayyam Beirut Film Festival Website
  • Beirut DC
  • Ayyam Beirut Al Cinema’iya’s Facebook Group

“Sara 1978″ is the title of the Syrian artist Sara Shamma’s exhibition. The exhibition will include paintings that derive inspirations from the artist’s childhoold memories and life experience as an artist and a human interacting with men, women and children.

Here are details of the exhibition:

Sara 1978

• When:
  Saturday 11 October 2008 6 pm
• Until:
  23 October 2008
• Opening hours:
  4:00 to 8:00 pm
• Where:
  Syria – Damascus
  Mezzeh. Behind Children Hospital
• Call:
  00963116628112
• Visit:
  www.sarashamma.com

“Red Shoes, Blue Song” – Painting & collage on paper, 2004

Paris-based Lebanese Illustrator and artist Lamia Ziadé started her career at the age 18 when she moved to Paris to study in Graphic Arts in Atelier Met de Penninghen. She begun her career by designing fabrics for fashion houses of Jean-Paul Gaultier & Issey Myiake. She also worked with Vogue, San Pelligrino and a number of CD & film poster designs.

She participated in a number of exhibitions, one of them was under the title Hotel’s War in Galerie Tanit. The exhbition addressed the time back in 1975 where different militias (Al Kata’eb, Al Murabetoun, Al Feda’youn..etc) involved in the war took over several luxurious hotels in Beirut and used them as fortresses for weeks of dreadful fights. The exhibition explores the way those militias integrated into the hotel forcefully and turned them into their own little habitats where they drink and eat from what’s in the hotel, while entertaining themselves in there.

Photograph from her exhibition “Hotel’s War” – 2008 (Click to Enlarge)

Ziadé’s style takes a very interesting pattern and style of her own; a style that can be identified as highly feminie and yet childish in nature (from the different usage of fabrics, character drawing and so). She is a fan of depicting women either engaging in masturbation or not; but in both cases they are usually with wide open legs open for the spectator’s sight. One only thing that most can agree about Ziadé, her fulfillmet of the titled “Pop artist”.

“Yellow & Gold” – Tissues, 2006

Ziadé both wrote and co-wrote a number of books. They are: “L’utilisation Maximum de la Douceur”, “Dix Doigs Pour Une Voix”, “Rayon Beauté”, “Souliax” and “Strip Tease”.

cover of one of her books “Rayon Beauté” – 1998

Links

• Visit Lamia Ziadé’s official website
• Her profile on Galerie Tanit
• About her exhibition “Hotel’s War” (German)

“RESISTANCE[S] صمود” is a compilation DVD of 8 experimental films & videos from Middle Eastern & North African artists. The main theme portrayed is about the formation of an identity while belonging to more than one culture through immigration and possibly displacement by consent. Formulated in the most interesting way, each artist takes on a personal view to interpret it through images, sound and motion.

There are two volumes of the compilation, RESISTANCE[S] II. The second compilation exposes the diverse creative energies in the area and using it tries to deteriorate any common stereotypes created regarding those in the Middle East and North Africa.

The artists featured on the first volume of RESISTANCE[S] DVD are: Zoulikha Bouabdellah, Taysir Batniji, Mounir Fatmi, Lamya Gargash, Usama Alshaibi, Jayce Salloum, Frédérique Devaux and Waël Noureddine.

Artists participating on the second volume are: Nassim Amaouche, Al Fadhil, Joude Gorani, Katia Kameli, Bouchra Khalili, Nesrine Khodr, Pauline M’barek, Zineb Sedira and Jalal Toufic.

Scene from “Wet Tiles” by Lamya Gargash

The DVD is produced and distributed by Lowave DVD, which is an independent film label founded in 2002 in Paris, France. They aim to promote experimental film and video. They produce and distribute both compilation dvd’s featuring several artists and solo ones as well.

Below you can find the trailer of RESISTANCE[S] صمود Vol. I:

Trailer of RESISTANCE[S] صمود Vol. II:

• Visit Lowave DVD Website

Artists from Sudan has not been featured previously on Fann 3arabi, although there are amazingly talented Sudani artists yet the resources on the net seemed quite few and not very efficient.

Therefore, Fann 3arabi presents this wonderful website that features a huge number of Sudani artists and has both showcase of each artist as well as their biography. The work is cateogrised under different categories; Illustration, Calligraphy, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture and much more.

Here are some samples of the work featured there:

A Pedestrian Song by Mohamed Abusabib – Ink, 1996

Holy Quraan calligraphy painting by Alawad Mustafa

Untitled by Shamseldeen Adam Bushara – oil

Untitled by Mohamed Omer Bushara – Lazertan etching, 2006 (Click to Enlarge)

Untitled by Fayrouz Omer – Mixed media, 2004

Puzzled by Ahmad Elmardi – Digital, 2002

• Visit Sudan Artists Gallery

“Walladah” - silkscreen print

Born in 1956 in Saudi Arabia and raised in the US. She received her education from Cairo University and Minneapolis College of Arts & Design. Al Mansour’s work mostly addresses the identity of Arabic women and voices her desire for change in order to reach equality and justice. She also seeks issues such as religions, sexualities and tolerance.

She has an array of works, variating from silk-screen prints on fabric usally using henna ink, to paintings, 3D work and more. Depiction of Arab individuals comes in a consistent pattern in her work, and a heavy usage of Arabic calligraphy incorperated in most of her work.

Two paintings from the series “Identity” – acrylics

• Visit Hend Al Mansour’s Official Website

Fann 3arabi will be resuming very soon

PLEASE stay tuned :)

Ayad Alkadhi an Iraqi artist born in Iraq – lived his life between Iraq, United Arab Emirates and England. He received his Masters in Fine Arts from Tisch School of the Arts of New York University. After moving out of Iraq to seek a more prosperous career, he settled shortly in Amman, Jordan where he had exhibited art works at Orfali Gallery. Later on he had his first one-man show in New Zealand. Additionally, Alkadhi’s work was exhibited in a number of different states in the US as well as being exhibited in Sotheby’s London.

His works can be seen as mostly self portraits where he would depict himself in several situations or scenarios, and it’s quite significant the amount of Arabic calligraphy he incorporates into his artworks. Religious iconography has appeared a number of times in his works, as well as elements which are inspired by major political incidents in Iraq and the sense of connection and belonging to his home country.

Alkadhi works mostly using mixed media, he displays a very solid talent and knowledge when depicting the Arabic letter as it shows from his calligraphy in his artworks. One of the earlier series of Alkadhi works was titled “Kadhigraphy”; where he drove inspiration from Arabic calligraphy and created a set of self-made shapes that merges contemporary with traditional for Arabic letters using different quotes, words and phrases.  When asked to comment about his fondness of Arabic calligraphy, Alkadhi said the following:

“Arabic lettering/calligraphy is our direct visual link to our heritage therefore it seem only natural to use it when telling a visual story on canvas”

• Visit Ayad Alkadhi’s Official Website
• Ayad on artnet