ArtNews
Previews - October


Golnaz Fathi
Controlled Chaos
September 23 – October 21, 2010

The Third Line, Dubai



Home
Newsletter Sign-up
Submit Events
Submit Exhibition Opening Photos
Join artBahrain.org
LOG IN >
October 2010
FOR HER fourth solo exhibition at The Third Line and beginning the fall season, Fathi will present a selection of light boxes and works on paper. She began working with light boxes in 2007 while seeking an alternative to her previous works on canvas. This exhibition also sees her return to working on paper, a medium which offers a sense of vulnerability as the brushes stroke the surface of the blank page. Continuing her practice of expressive calligraphic forms, Fathi constantly blurs the lines between the legible and illegible. Her work incorporates script that has been perfected on two levels, both the painterly range of strokes and gestures, and the technical mastery of line. Having recently re-introduced colour into her predominantly black and white palette, these mixed-media drawings present bold and fine brush strokes of unreadable text color. Loud splashes of yellow, red and blue serve as a focal base overlapping and selectively concealing thick lines and frenzied scribbles. The dramatic addition of colour and contrasting forms creates a constant visual struggle. The drawings in turn serve as detailed studies for her light boxes - a unique medium through which Fathi expresses her calligraphic technique. The fine lines are framed by the boldness of the black box as the glow of letters and forms emerge into a strangely still frenzy of movement. The elements of colour and form, movement and calm interweave into an imposing relationship of aesthetic balance and divided energy. The resulting works contain a raw beauty - a silver lining amongst the chaos.
About Golnaz Fathi

A trained calligrapher, Fathi has the ability to skillfully transform known language into form and composition. Having discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran’s Azad University, she later left to train at the Calligraphy Association of Iran for six years. As a result Fathi was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat (a genre of calligraphy). She soon tired of the discipline’s rules and regulations and thus created a new form of expression in her paintings: an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance.

Her paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known coded alphabet. The strength of her work stems from the drive to express emotions that cannot be pinned down into words; Fathi's works succeeds where language fails. She has exhibited in a number of international shows, recently at October Gallery, London; Farjam Collection, Dubai; Chelsea Art Museum, New York, and participated in the International Woman Artists’ Biennial, South Korea (2009). Fathi currently lives and works in Iran.

About The Third Line
The Third Line is an art gallery that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists locally, regionally and internationally with a gallery space in Dubai. The gallery organises non-profit, alternative programs including Kutub, a bi-lingual Arab literature appreciation circle and documentary and feature film
screenings.

The Third Line recently re-branded its consultancy division under the name of three, advising on artbased projects and events as well as to PR and media management. In addition, the gallery’s publishing sector, Works on Paper, publishes books by associated artists from the region. Books published include Presence by Emirati photographer Lamya Gargash (2008), and In Absentia by Palestinian-Kuwaiti Tarek Al-Ghoussein (2009).

The Third Line
Al Quoz 3, POBox 72036
Dubai, UAE
T +9714 3411 367
F +9714 3411 369
www.thethirdline.com
Fathi’s new works balance colour and layers of text in an exploration of an illegible
calligraphic language. Through her distinctly personalized style, she continues to demonstrate her dexterity using the simplicity of the line.
BLENDING THE rich Middle Eastern craft with the Far Eastern ideals of purity of line, Nada Debs is the creator of the “East & East” concept in furniture design. The multiple Easts represent the cool minimalism and restraint of Japanese aesthetic combined with the lavish warmth of Arab expression. Her commitment to quality workmanship ensures that each piece exudes the air of an instant classic. She also remains at the cutting edge of the international design scene, using materials very much in vogue, such as acrylic and concrete. At the heart of her work remains an idea that is ever present in her design – that of preserving ones cultural roots while forging the identity for herself, her compatriots, and for the world, of modern Arab.
Nada Debs
12  - 19 October 2010

The Courtyard, Bahrain
About Nada Debs

Nada Debs, of Lebanese origin, was brought up in Japan. She studied Interior Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States and started her own design company in the UK designing and producing custom furniture. Returning to her roots in Lebanon after an absence of 40 years, Nada Debs found modern designs for Middle Eastern furniture almost non- existent. This made her determined to use her
multi – cultural background to create furniture which would appeal to a global market.
Nada created her company “ East and East” in the year 2000, which concentrates on
designing, manufacturing and selling her own furniture line.

The company now has two retail outlets based in Beirut- The Nada Debs Gallery, which displays the “East & East” Collection and the “East & West” Collection and the Nada Debs Boutique, which carries her collection of home accessories. Her products are represented in New York, London, Rome & Dubai. She is presently working on several interior design projects throughout the Middle East and the USA.
Simeen Farhat at Xerxes

Charmed, Frenzied and Mad
7 October - 30 November 2010
PAKISTAN BORN Simeen Farhat is an internationally renowned artist and academic.  She challenges popular perceptions in the West through her multi media works.  Farhat’s text sculptures are used aesthetically as well as philosophically. 

Her layered and condensed texts use the amenable forms of the Arabic script as cluster formations, eliciting their linguistic power through an amalgam of visual energy and through allegorical references to Persian and Urdu poetry. By pairing female forms with poetic text in her installations, Farhat strives to show a nexus between mind and soul.  For Farhat a mind is free to think and a soul is free to exist, whether with or without the coverings of an outer garment. By pairing the text with the ethereal figures, Farhat encourages not only a monologue between mind and body, but also a dialogue with the audience.  She seeks to examine how her installations are perceived by audiences from different cultures.  And through that process she poses queries --  Do the life-size, veiled figures represent the ideals of modesty and purity? Do they demonstrate that women have the right to think and speak freely? Do these mysterious, faceless figures threaten or confuse non-Moslems or Occidentals? Do those unfamiliar with the veil worry that the wearers will attack them? Is the Occidental threatened by the veil? 
Simeen Farhat's CV

1968 Born Karachi, Pakistan

EDUCATION

2000 M.F.A., Summa cum Laude, Texas Christian University

1998 B.F.A., Summa Cum Laude, Arizona State University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010 Xerxes Art, London

2008 Words Without Voices; Forms Without Bodies, The MAC, Dallas

2006 On the Run, Kiva Gallery, Mountain View College, Dallas

2003 Shadows, Commerce Street Artists Warehouse, Houston

2002 F.I.M., Mezzanine Gallery, Arlington Museum of Art, Texas

2001 Distant Medleys, Dallas Center for Contemporary Arts, Dallas Relics, Lago Vista Gallery, Richland College, Dallas

2000 Time and Place, New Talent Gallery, Irving Art Center, Irving, Texas

AWARDS

2005 Artist Grant, Vermont Studio Center

2002 Clay Fellowship Residency, Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York

2001 Artist in Residence, "Series Project VIII," Coronado Studios, Austin

2000 Feature Show Award, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska Cash award, Fred Wells 24th National Juried Exhibition, NWU, Lincoln, Nebraska

1998 Graduate Departmental Assistantship, Texas Christian University

1996 Board of Regents Scholarship, Arizona State University

1995 Juror's Award, Best of Category, Mesa Community College, Arizona League of Innovation Award, Mesa Community College, Arizona

1994 Juror's Award, Best of Category, Mesa Community College, Arizona

xerxesart.com
thethirdline.com