top of page

March 8, 2021 - May 15, 2021

Women Artists

INSIDE / OUT

View Artworks
View Catalogue

“Inside/Out” is a celebration of extraordinary women artists in the Middle East. Organized thematically, this exhibition showcases dynamic pieces by established and emerging artists whose works date from the 90’s to the present. Each part explores an exceptional range of mediums and themes and is intended to provide the viewer with a unique female perspective into the personal, social, and political changes within the region over the past two decades.
Part I:
Each artwork contains something of a self-portrait about the realities the artists live in as well as their personal experiences. The artists withstand assumptions made about a woman’s place and instead create their own identities. By doing so they take control over how they would like to be perceived.
Part II:
While the pieces within this collection are created from the artists’ personal emotions and memories, they welcome the viewers to make their own decisions about the art by reflecting on their personal memories and experiences within each piece. From landscapes to abstract forms, the works create a softened visual language that transcend conceptual boundaries.
Part III:
The artists react to social injustices by creating artworks that express criticism of existing local, national, or international state of affairs. By using overtly political subjects or messages, the artists seek to fuel the viewers’ emotions and bring attention to these ongoing issues. Through these works, the viewer can experience the frustration and disillusion but also perseverance and hope.

Artists Featured:
Afifa Aleiby, Alia Farid, Amani Althuwaini, Amira Behbehani, Aya Haidar, Dalia Khamissy, Emma Harake, Etel Adnan, Farah Behbehani, Farida Leshai, Fatima El-Hajj, Gazbia Sirry, Ghadah AlKandari, Laila Shawa, Leila Nseir, Lisette Forsyth, Malika Agueznay, Mary Tuma, Mona Hatoum, Mona Saudi, Myriam Abdelaziz, Nadia Safieddine, Nagress Hashemi, Newsha Tavakolian, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Salwa Zeidan, Samah Shihadi, Samia Halaby, Shirin Neshat, Tagreed Dargouth, Tanya Habjouqa, Thuraya Al-Baqsami, Veronique Guerrieri, Zena Assi.

"بالداخل / بالخارج" معرض يحتفي بالفنانات الاستثنائيات في الشرق الأوسط. يعرض هذا المعرض، الذي تم تنظيمه وفقا لعدد من الموضوعات، قطعًا فنية ديناميكية لعدد من الفنانات الرائدات، ومن عدة أجيال، وصولا لجيل الشباب ممن أنجزن أعمالهن الفنية في الفترة من التسعينات إلى الوقت الراهن. يستكشف كل قسم من أقسام المعرض مجموعة استثنائية من الوسائط الفنية والموضوعات، ويهدف إلى تزويد المشاهد بمنظور أنثوي فريد في التغييرات الفردية والاجتماعية
.والسياسية داخل المنطقة على مدار العقدين الماضيين

القسم I
يحتوي كل عمل فني هنا على صورة ذاتية تعبر عن الوقائع التي عايشتها الفنانات، بالإضافة إلى تجاربهن الشخصية. تقاوم الفنانات الافتراضات الموضوعة حول
.وضع المرأة ومكانها في المجتمع، وبدلاً من ذلك يقمن بتشييد هويات خاصة بهن. وبهذا يتحكمن في الطريقة التي يرغبن في أن يُنظر بها إليهن

القسم II
بينما يتم خلق وإبداع الأعمال الفنية في هذه المجموعة من المشاعر والذكريات الشخصية للفنانات، فإنهن، في الوقت نفسه، يرحبن بالانطباعات الفنية الخاصة للمتلقين، وما تستدعيه عند مشاهدتهم لهذه الأعمال من خلال أفكارهم حول ذكرياتهم وتجاربهم الشخصية التي قد تتولد عند تلقيهم هذه الأعمال.
.من المناظر الطبيعية إلى الأشكال والتكوينات المجردة، تخلق هذه الأعمال لغة بصرية ناعمة تتجاوز الحدود المفاهيمية

القسم III:
تتفاعل الفنانات مع مظاهر اللاعدالة الاجتماعية من خلال إبداع أعمال فنية تعبر عن أشكال من النقد لأوضاع قائمة على المستوى المحلي أو الإقليمي أو الدولي. فباستخدام موضوعات أو رسائل سياسية واضحة، تسعى الفنانات إلى تأجيج مشاعر المتلقي ولفت الانتباه إلى هذه القضايا القائمة. في هذه الأعمال، يمكن للمشاهد
.أن يختبر مشاعر الإحباط وخيبة الأمل، وكذلك المثابرة والأمل

Farah K. Behbehani is a Kuwaiti artist and designer and was educated at Boston University and Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London. She has studied with the renowned calligrapher Khaled al-Saai and recently won an award at the Sharjah Biennial of Calligraphy.

Tagreed Darghouth was born in 1979. She received a Diploma of higher education in Painting and Sculpting from the Lebanese University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and did a year of graduate studies in Space Art from at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris in 2003. She won the Boghossian Foundation Prize, in the category of painting, in 2012. She has held a number of solo exhibitions, including Vision Machines: Shall You See Me Better Now?, 2015,Rehearsals, 2013, Canticle of Death, 2011, Fair & Lovely, 2010, and Mirror, Mirror!, 2008, all at Agial Art Gallery, Beirut. And she has participated in various group exhibitions, including “Thin Skin: Six Artists from Beirut,” Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, 2015; “Insondable Surface,” French Cultural Center, Beirut, 2013; “Re-Orientations I,” Rose Issa Projects, London, 2012; and “10th Anniversary of Kasa Art Gallery,” Kasa Gallery, Istanbul, 2010.

Ghadah Alkandari is a Kuwaiti artist born in Delhi in 1969. In 1992 she received a BA in Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo. But it was a six-week painting course at the School of Visual Arts that “shaped my current painting style, which was also influenced early on by both classical painters: Cezanne, Matisse, Schiele, Modigliani and Klimt, and comic books: Mad Magazine, Archie and Asterix.”
Her body of work ranges from large-scale acrylic paintings, primarily figurative, exploring the wide spectrum of human emotion and familial complexities, to smaller intimate pen and ink surreal drawings detached and focused on everyday happenings.
The artist had numerous solo exhibitions in Kuwait, and has participated in several group exhibitions locally and internationally, including the Arab Culture in Diaspora exhibition in Kuwait, Femmes Artistes Du Koweit at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2006), Approaches to Figurative Practices at the Third Line Gallery, Dubai (2007), and JAMM Contemporary Art Auction in Kuwait (2010).
Since 2009, Ghadah Alkandari uses her blog ‘prettygreenbullet’ as a platform to display her work on a daily basis.

Shihadi represents the third generation in this exhibition. With pencil and charcoal, she addresses the daily personal and social challenges that women face, at home and beyond. Her exceptional drawing skills reach another level of precision, subtlety and emotion.

bottom of page