The theme of travel is strictly connected to that of separation, of disruption and of the inevitability of making farewells. The reverse of these feelings is the attempt to neutralize the evidence of severance through a series of stratagems perfected over the millennial history of humanity. Photography in particular has a privileged position among the expedients recently adopted to minimize the effects of nostalgia, and as absurd as it might seem, also in order to increase those same effects.

We carry images in order to have a physical “objective” reminder of places and individuals of high emotional relevance whose memory we cannot allow to fade or dissolve. Documentarism, photographic archives

and artistic photography seem to share a deep interest in the collection of visual relics, although their treatment dramatically changes moving on a line that starts with preservation and reaches re-elaboration and interpretation.

Silver Cloud engages both the joyful irony that fuels the Pop Art movement and the experimental aesthetics of minimalist art. The project is comprised of both a photograph and video footage documenting the fall of Sailstorfer’s steel-cast cloud sculpture onto the ground below, where it creates a series of cracks and ripples through the asphalt.

Held in collaboration with edgy Tokyo-based Einstein Studio, CHI-KA is exhibiting New Japan Photo - Issue 3. Showing for the first time in Dubai, the exhibition features award-winning young Japanese photographers leaving a mark on the contemporary fine art photography scene in Tokyo and beyond. They are recipients of the prestigious Japan Photo Award, currently the largest photography award in Japan, held biannually and involving over 3000 participants.

Nick Brandt’s latest photographic series juxtaposes the world’s vanishing natural ecosystems with explosively expanding urban environments. The exhibition features a series of large-scale black and white panoramas that depict printed wildlife portraits inserted into industrial locations like factories, underpasses, and quarries.

Elmarsa Gallery is a Tunisian gallery that opened a branch in Alserkal Avenue in 2015 and is showcasing photography by Tunisian-born photogrpaher Mouna Karray. 

Speaking about her project Noir, 2013, Karray says, “In jail, my body is constrained but remains able to create. Only my hand is visible to activate the shooting distance. The air release, single connection with the outside world, is not longer just an instrument to accomplish a photographic act, but turns out to be a way to get free. It is in the dark we start to see.”

Central themes in Khalili’s work are the trauma of losing the homeland in 1948, the sense of separation between the shared memories of the older, exiled generation and the present reality of Palestine. In the Colour Correction - Camp series, Khalili’s focus is Al-Am’ari refugee camp, a sprawling entity located inside/beside/outside the city of Ramallah. The form of the camp does not so much represent its economic status but rather represents its loss and trauma as a political manifestation, by the continuous production of the ephemeral structures and their relation with their surroundings. Khalili changes the refugee camp’s colours as a symbolic act, an attempt to fill this sense of loss, like a child filling a colouring book- and produce the possibility of hope. Here he attempts to appropriate an urban landscape that reminds us of the tragedy - of their existence and our disappearance - in order to subvert memory into a desired future.

Hussain Al Moosawi’s work presents a playful and vibrant portrayal of construction fences and how they break up the homogeneity of the architecturally uniform neighbourhoods of the UAE. The work demonstrates how even humble fences can offer a colorful lesson in freedom and expression.

Submersion is a series of images capturing the emotional processes that occur when a man meets water. Harvey’s photo series explores ideas of displacement and human adaptation in an aquatic environment. 

Thráfsma explores identity, the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined, and the way memory changes shape over time. This series presents Lando’s curiosity around how creation can be achieved through destruction.

A series of photographs focused on the architectural monument of Yazd, Isfahan by American photographer Lynn Davis, best known for her large scale black and white photographs. The images were taken during her trip to Iran in 2001 and are part of her larger dialogue with the tradition of travel photography.

The Rug Company will be exhibiting photos celebrating the highly skilled craftsmanship of its weaving houses in Nepal where it brings together the very finest traditional rug making skills with contemporary design.

Fleeces from the Himalayan plateau
Settled at the base of the Himalayas, the lakeside town of Pokhara is where the rugs begin their journey. A monastery of Tibetan Buddhist monks organises the preparation of the raw wool by washing the fleeces in glacial melt water lakes.

The Dye Master
The most important person in the dyeing process, the esteemed Dye Master is responsible for matching colours and creating recipes for every hue in our infinite palette. The dyeing of yarns is a precise skill and creating the recipe for a single colour can take a whole day.

Green Art Gallery is pleased to present a group show that focuses on the use of photography both as a medium and as a form of inspiration. Exhibiting artists include Ahmad Moualla, Jaber Al Azmeh, Zsolt Bodoni, Jung Lee and Nazif Topcuoglu.

Syrian artist Ahmad Moualla has become well known for his beautifully painted and highly dramatic canvases. Often composed on a grand scale, Moualla’s theatrical paintings wrestle with the often strained relationships between society and the individual; of the power of past and present icons and by the increased blurring of line between reality and fiction, and the conscious and subconscious mind. In the works on view Moualla focuses instead on small-scale paintings on board thereby resembling black and white photographs that provide a snapshot of a troubled society.

The work of Hyngarian painter Zsolt Bodoni is often inspired by and sourced from photographs documenting old masters. The artist first attempts to peer beneath the glaze of the “original”, searching for the skeleton underneath, then, from his own reproduction he invents new elements, or changes the proportions - a process which he describes as similar to the act of “hacking” - his role that of a virus that invades the unique masterpieces, this changing our reading of the past and redefining our understanding of originality. On view are Bodoni’s delicate acrylic on photography works which from the basis of many of his large scale paintings.

The exhibition highlights the photographic oeuvres of 3 artists who work primarily in the medium: Korean artist Jung Lee’s landscape images are paired with Turkish artist Nazif Topcuoglu’s nostalgic take on youth and the golden age. These works are a stark contrast to Syrian artists documentary works on the Syrian crisis.

For more information, please contact the gallery at info@gagallery.com or +971 4 346 9305