"In the Footsteps of Cai Lun II," a showcase of artists using drawing and printmaking as a primary medium, runs until Sept. 5 at Ayyam Gallery in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.
Samia Halaby
‘New Orleans Harbor’
This exhibition’s title references the Chinese official credited as the inventor of the modern papermaking process and “assembles a group of artists who have used drawing and printmaking as primary media,” the gallery’s site states. Among them is acclaimed Palestinian artist Halaby, whose painted silkscreen proof is typical of her pioneering works of contemporary abstraction.
Athier Mousawi
‘Nothing is Certain…’
The full title of this work is “Nothing is Certain, Everything is Melting, and that’s Okay 14” and it reflects the gallery’s description of the Iraqi artist’s work as “studies of color and spatial composition.” It’s also a fine example of his trademark use of three-dimensional elements and how he “manages to find the middle ground between fluid organic forms and hard-edge geometric shapes.”
Nihad Al-Turk
‘The Vanquished’
One of the central themes of the Syrian artist’s work, according to the gallery, is an exploration of “the endurance of man amid the power struggles of good and evil.” His “labored portraits of dissident Syrians,” such as this 2015 work, “reveal the manic nature of the painter’s hand as he depicts stylized figures with meticulous detail using a ballpoint pen.”
