Crossroads is a row of art exhibitions at Yas Viceroy Hotel and its aim is to make art accessible for everyone who walks into a public place, as well as to showcase the work of local Emirati, expat and international artists. CROSSROADS is a series of art exhibitions at Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi, initiated and organized by Swiss Art Gate UAE and in collaboration with Yas Viceroy, Abu Dhabi.

With Crossroads #9 Swiss Art Gate UAE presents and internationally acclaimed award-winning Emirati artist Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim who has become known for using raw materials in his works such as hashed leaves, clay, paper, glue that he believes grow “from the earth”, to serve the purpose of artistic expression. Through his pieces of ink on paper, he affirms his belief that “Art is motion”. Since the 90s, Ibrahim has been engaged in a confrontation with nature and the environment in the region of Khor Fakan – his native region and authentic inspirational place.

“Abdulrahman Al Muaaini’s paintings rely on the drawing principle. He is absorbed in the production of small drawings consisting of several symbols and shapes that he later transfers into huge paintings, or paints them directly on the exhibition walls. He possesses the extraordinary ability to transform these tiny sketches into paintings without compromising their artistic value and at the same time preserving the contemporary aesthetic value of the large paintings he produces.

Abdulrahman’s works are a product of the drawing process, the addition of line, shape or color to one another to create an infinite series of optical elements. The viewer can imagine the shapes and colors beyond the boundaries of his paintings, and they broaden and extend to the outer space of the painting or sketch. His paintings are visually attractive and imposing, they force the viewer to stop not only to observe but to draw nearer, to establish visual contact with the painting at close proximity.

Abdulrahman’s paintings are fields of visual signals painted with accuracy and precision. Perhaps it is related to the old science of Alchemy and some kind of mystical. Maybe they were inspired by the fast paced life of the modern city, its endless stream of sounds, the giant moving billboards in the streets of the crowded city and its malls and shops.” Source: Total Arts at Courtyard, Dubai.

The exhibition in the Light Box Galleries shows 20 works by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim and four large sized artworks by Abdulrahman Al Muaaini.

About Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim

Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim was born in 1962 in Khor Fakan, United Arab Emirates. His piece The Circles of Khor Fakan was made when he and his son would ride their bicycles to the mountainous region of Khor Fakan. The large circles were made of rocks and inspired by motion. “Motion! We don’t want to stop, we are in perpetual motion, the geography, the social life of Khor Fakan, they are all in perpetual motion.”

Ibrahim is one of the key figures of contemporary art in the United Arab Emirates. He is a member of the Flying House Dubai and the Emirates Fine Arts Society. Source: Sharjah Bienniale, catalogue.

About Abdulrahman Al Maaini

Born in 1975, living and working in Sharjah. Abdulrahman Al Maaini is a young artist from the Khasab area, a mountainous region overlooking the Hormuz strait, having been influenced by the decorative style of the area’s traditional houses, costumes and jewelry, he proceeded to create decorations unrivaled in their originality.

Abdul Rahman’s works are non-repetitive spaces of color that contain organized geometric shapes and non-organized, non-geometric shapes, some with exciting, warm colors and others with calming, cold colors. His latest works include an enlargement of some parts of the painting where the decorations are magnified only to return to their usual miniature precision, thus creating a balance of color and size in the painting. In the last two years Abdulrahman experienced with various color schemes, which took him “out of the box” thinking. Source: Sharjah Bienniale, catalogue by Nasser Abdullah.

Abdulrahman was many years part of The Flying House Dubai, where they hold a collection of artworks representative of the Emirati contemporary art movement dating from 1973 to the present day by some of the pioneers of contemporary art in the UAE.  Since 2003 he regularly shows his work in group exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, and is a regular participant of the Sharjah Annual Fine Arts Society’s exhibition.