Artwork by Ghassan Abu Laban
Orient Gallery at AWA 2013:
Colorful Thoughts
Colorful Thoughts showcases a wide range of visual ideas, diverse treatments, and varied artistic styles presented by the artists we so proudly collaborate with. This exhibition aims at presenting the different visual sensibilities which can emerge from a single theme. In it one sees different lines of thought and various interpretations of one thought taking shape. Each piece speaks its own language, and can be understood without an interpreter and related to without a mediator through a universal language that transcends borders, geography and time. And this falls within Orient Gallery’s vision of fostering unique, inexplicable connections between a canvas and an open-minded viewer.
Ayman Gharaibeh
Ayman Naser Gharaibeh was born in 1974 in Jordan, In 1996 he received his BA in fine arts At Yarmouk University in Irbid. He is currently an art instructor at MSS Schools in Amman and is an illustrator for educational books published by the Ministry of Education, and Wessam Magazine published by the Ministry of Culture. In 1996 he was awarded the first prize at the International Drawing Competition for Students Artists at Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia-U.S.A. He has participated in several solo and groups exhibitions in Jordan.
Georges Bassil
Georges Bassil is a Lebanese painter based in Beirut but currently residing in Jordan. Born in Beirut in 1965, Bassil is a self-educated artist, painter and creator of jewels. His artistic career started in Beirut in 1996. In 1999 he received the bronze medal and a diploma of honor at the third Biennial of Plastic Art of Lattaquieh-Syria.
He exhibited in Montreal, Monaco, Paris, Nice and London. His lyrical paintings of intimate encounters are captivating. His work is noted for the powerful presence of his timid subjects and daring often controversial depiction of humans exposed nakedly and indifferent to the viewer’s curiosity. Eyes, the window to the soul, also invade his paintings impregnated once with softness and happiness, once with pain and sorrow.
Ghassan Abu Laban
Ghassan Abu Laban was born in 1964, Bethlehem, Jordan. In 1988 he received his BFA in painting and drawing at Yarmouk University, Jordan. He is currently a private instructor of drawing and painting as well as an art critic. He has held several solo exhibitions in Jordan and has participated in several group exhibitions all over the region and the world.
Hilda Hiary
Hilda Hiary is an artist whose work demand contemplation of its unique qualities. She lives and works in her native Jordan but is also a cosmopolitan global citizen and very widely traveled since she was a child and has exhibited at very important venues including recent exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East. Over the years, her prolific presence and persistence has vaulted her to the top of a select group of female artists emerging into global space from the specific cultural environments of their Middle Eastern origins.
Jamal Abdul Rahim
Jamal Abdul Rahim is a multi-talented, multi-tasking creative artist with a love for sculpture. It is difficult to explain what Jamal Abdul Rahim means to art. He is an oil painter, a print-maker artist and a sculpture-artist. His gifted talent and disciplined self development encourages many to challenge themselves creatively. Jamal is one of the most established and highly regarded contemporary artists of Bahrain, exhibiting his work extensively in Europe and the Middle East. The award-winning artist builds his art from the influence of rich Arab civilization, its mythology, religion and language.
Jihad Al Ameri
Jehad Al-Ameri was born in Jordan in 1977, and is currently working on his PhD in Fine Arts at the University of Granada, Spain. He earned his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Al Yarmouk University in Jordan in 2010, and his BA in Fine Arts from Baghdad University in 2002. The artist has participated in more than fifty group exhibitions both inside and outside Jordan. Among others, Al Ameri is a member of the Jordanian Plastic Artists Association. These days, he lives and works between Amman and Granada.
Khaled Al Khani
Khaled Al Khani studied art in Hama, in Syria graduating in 1991. In 1998 he graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Damascus in oil painting. In 2000 he graduated with a higher degree from the same school in oil painting as well. His works are displayed in Damascus Museum as well as all over the region and in some European countries. He has participated in several solo exhibitions and group shows since 1993.
Mohammad AL Amiri
Mohammad AL Amiri is a Jordanian artist and poet who until recently was head of the Jordanian Plastic Arts Association. He is also a member of the Jordanian Art Critics Association, the Jordanian Writers Association and the Arab Writers Union. Since 1983 Amiri has held 15 solo exhibitions all over Jordan and participated in many local, regional and international exhibitions. In 2006 he was awarded the first price at the Teheran Biennale and in 2007 his artworks were part of Christies’ International Auction in Dubai.
Mohammad Tamimi
A Jordanian artist born in Peters-Burg, Russia in 1988. Mohammad has a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Philadelphia University and lives in Amman. He presents mysterious visual approaches through a family looking in its ambiguous presence for a human childhood and tries to return to its innocent past. The characters in his paintings are featured in an interior and exterior elderly.
Yassin Mohammadawi
Yassin Mohammadawi was born and raised in Iraq. He was awarded the first prize in the annual comprehensive exhibition in Iraq . In 1983 he was granted a scholarship to Italy. Between the years 1983-1989 he obtained his BA in Fine Arts from Cardiff College, University of Wales, and his Postgraduate Diploma from Southampton College, England. He was a member of the Welsh and Iraqi Plastics Association . Some of his work is exhibited at the Iraqi Museum, the Jordan National Museum, the French Military Museum, the Syrian Museum, the Ministry of Jordanian Culture, and at some Arab and Foreign Missions. Mohammad artwork is almost sculptural where he used various techniques and material including mud, clay and chemicals. Common motifs that run through his paintings are life in rural Iraq, birds, animals, children, calligraphy, and love. Mohammadawi resided in Jordan in the last 13 years of his life, where he died of cancer, at the age of 47.
Jazla Al Husseini
Jazla Al Husseini is an artist born in 1965 in Damascus. She graduated from the Superior Institute of Fine Arts in Damascus 1986 and carried through with her art career through many solo and group exhibitions in Syria and the region. Through the employment of exaggeration, specially on the Phoenician proportions of her sculptural work. Jazla embodies her diverse characters through grasping then representing her physiological and mental states in her own way. The focus on her inner state is clearly shown through the bowed and destructed lines of her sculptures’ anatomy. Nevertheless, she manages to still leave a trace of the glory and zenith of her personality in the work, assuring its simplicity and its relevance to the reality. This is how Jazla works on strengthening the expressive and ecstatic values of any work of art, using her skillful talent in experimenting with what can be used, anyhow and anywhere
Abdul Raouf Shamoun
One of the most renowned Jordanian artists, born in Jordan in 1947. Held many solo exhibitions between 1972 and 1994. Participated in most of the group exhibitions in Jordan. Participated in international exhibitions in United Kingdom, Ukraine, Chine, Bangladesh, Kuwait, Algeria, Iraq, Oman, UAE. Has won artistic awards in the field of art, the National Encouragement Prize of Arts, 1990. The International Sharqua Bienname Prize in 1993.
Issam Tantawi
Issam Tantawi was born in Jerusalem in 1954 and resides in Jordan. An award wining photographer by profession he has recently dedicated his energy to painting. He has held several personal art exhibitions in Jordan and participated in many collective exhibitions all over the world including Tunisia, Spain, UAE, Turkey, Belgium and Indonesia.
Suheil Baddor
Syrian artist Suheil Baddor has dedicated his art in search of man’s manifestations in everyday life and in emotions. The woman lies at the very core of his art, becoming an aesthetic and human legend residing in his mind and his memory. She appears in his artwork as a supreme spirit glorified in her immortality. She is a reflection of the soil, in her abundance, in her growth, in her kindness and passion, and as the loving mother.
In his most recent work, Baddor paints the woman as one with music. She is presented in images that display the splendor of musical instruments, such as the violins and strings, leading to almost musical tones through the softness and suppleness of the lines
Hazem Al Zubi
With his circular shapes and multiple squares, Hazem Al Zubi transcends traditional form and presents an exquisite piece of art work. Recurring shapes edging in sharp contrast within circles; ceramic styled bars breaking the rhythm; a sense of harmony born from discord among the shapes. Hazem Al Zubi uses warm earthy colors entwined in shades of blue and grey. His art work induces a feeling of serenity and calm among viewers, as if permeating from magical ethereal world
AWA 