Trio of artists showcase works in Jeddah exhibition

Saleh Fareed Saudi Gazette JEDDAH - Three exceptionally talented international artists recently launched an exhibition of their works here in Jeddah at the Tasami Creative Lab for 10 days. The three artists’ collective body of work revealed an eagerness to experiment with a range of media and the subject matter varied from Jeddah-scapes to metaphorical comments about the enigmatic relationships between men and women. Abdulhameed Elfiqqi from the Egyptian city of Alexandria who is passionate about drawing and is regularly seen at local festivals drawing quick pencil portraits of people, illustrated his affinity for seascapes. This can be seen in his carefully-crafted acrylic palette knife depictions of the large Corniche scenes. His repertoire included ball point pen and pastel pencils drawings on board and wooden panels. He effectively incorporated tea and coffee stains to heighten the mood in some works and he named his unit of the exhibition, “Lovers of Jeddah.” Another exhibitor was Maysaa Mostafa from Cairo whose first large scale exhibition revealed her youthful attitude and her spirited approach with which she tackled the age-old ‘battle’ between Adam and Eve which was taken to new intensities against a contemporary backdrop. She awakened a tactile awareness with the ‘strange’ elements with which she texturized the canvas. She used ginger root, carrots and coffee to add metaphorical meaning to some works. Her style of representing the human body echoes familiar Egyptian stylization and her free floral studies are imagined spontaneous compositions which convey her feelings. The third artist, Pieter Pienaar of South Africa, displayed a collection of portraits in fairly traditional media which he manipulated with new and old art making tools. He incorporated waste materials such as fast food packaging paper, coffee cups and cheap mass-produced glossy stickers in his collage portraits. His aim with this show was to comment on the fact that we might often take each other for granted and regard others as disposable too, thus very conveniently brushing aside the uniqueness of the people near us. He labeled his part of the exhibition: “Everyone is a Hero.” “I am grateful that I have the privilege to honor Jeddah and its exceptional people with these humble portraits. Please accept them as my colorful gratitude,” He said. A visitor at the exhibition jokingly remarked that the featured works were more like a tea party rather than an art exhibition, because of all the palatable media incorporated in the artistic experiments.