Zawyeh Gallery: From Ramallah to Dubai
Zawyeh Gallery is an independent Visual Art Gallery founded in Ramallah, Palestine, in 2013. Since March 2020, the gallery has expanded by opening in a second location at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, UAE.
Zawyeh’s mission is to promote emerging and established Palestinian artists – from Palestine and the Diaspora – through various thematic exhibitions at home and aboard. In the past few years, the gallery organized several solo and collective exhibitions, showcasing artworks based on a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and photography.
Zawyeh aims at supporting young artists and showcasing contemporary and modern Palestinian art internationally through the participation in art fairs, exhibitions, and specific art projects. Zawyeh Gallery has participated in a number of art fairs including Paris Contemporary Art Show P/CAS (2019), Contemporary Istanbul (2019), Galleries at MAS Abu Dhabi (2019), Art Dubai (2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016), Abu Dhabi Art (2019, 2018), and Beirut Art Fair (2018, 2017).
Zawyeh believes in investing in creativity and artistic talents in Palestine, as a way of resilience in the face of adversaries.
Zawyeh Gallery has recently presented Dia Mrad, a young Lebanese photographer to Art Dubai in March 2022. Mrad participated with a series of photographs titled Reframing Beirut, aiming to celebrate and document the physical history of the city by looking back at abandoned landmarks and neglected structures that once shaped its culture. The project was divided into two parts, one that is celebratory, focusing on the multi-layered history of the city latent in architecture, while the other reflected the devastation and negligence that threaten it.
Dunes of Beirut by Dia Mrad
The gallery is currently hosting two exhibitions; Entangled Existence where six artists come together to express how their existence is entangled with the land and nature. Dia Mrad, Bashir Qonqar, Nabil Anani, Bashar Alhroub, Ruba Salameh, and Yazan Abu Salameh, voyage through their relationship with nature and surroundings using a variety of mediums.
The second exhibition is Inner Sanctuary by Rana Samara where she presents her personal intimate space revealing a layer of deep emotions connected with these places. From the comfort of her lounge to a corner in her favorite café, she explores the settings that embrace her daily life. Along the way, she portrays an inner sanctuary visually and sentimentally.
Samara depicts the inside of her world with fine details incorporating daily objects and furnishing. She uses her usual signature of charming colors and stunning decorative motifs to illustrate familiar locations pinned on her daily map; a lively studio, a neat kitchen, a colorful bedroom, corners of several cafes and bars, and even a calm abandoned swimming pool.
Samara uses colors, motifs, and shapes to convey her sentiments showing her content, calmness, anxiety, or frustration. For example, the painting of a hospital room with a half-opened white curtain and a UV bag stand placed next to a bed bears an unsettling feeling.
Inner Sanctuary by Rana Samara
This exhibit is on display till end of August 2022.
