Art Dubai Modern

Booth M6

21-24.03.2018

For its sixth consecutive year of participation in Art Dubai Modern, Elmarsa is proud to present the work of Algerian artist Mahjoub Ben Bella (b. 1946) one of the most prominent artists from North Africa. The exhibition brings together a selection of his earlier works on paper and on canvas from the 70s and 80s. While he developed his own approach, based primarily on the use of Arabic calligraphy, his impressive, sometimes monumental works, which include frescoes and ceramic murals, combine influences from Western abstract painting with allusions to such Old Masters as the great Romantic colorist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863). His work has gradually shifted to the abundant expression of the forms, shapes and colors, thus giving to see a dense body of work which fits in a double heritage: Arab calligraphy and European painting.

Omar Bey, Labyrinthe, 2017, Shisha pipes and ink on canvas, 195 x 144 cm

Omar Bey, Upside down chair, 2018, Metal wires ,131 x 129 cm

Omar Bey, Black birds, 2017, Mixed media, 192 x 82 x 28 cm

Detail, Omar Bey, Black birds, 2017, Mixed media, 192 x 82 x 28 cm

Installation view, Omar Bey, Amerika, 2018, Metal Sculpture, 244 x 45 x 20 cm

Thameur Mejri, Caution wet floor 1, 2018, Mixed media on canvas, 200 x 180 cm

Thameur Mejri, Caution wet floor 2, 2018, Mixed media on canvas, 200 x 180 cm

Nabil Saouabi, And we are born again in the clouds - ونولد ثانیة في الغیوم – 2018, Graphite on paper, 150 x 219 cm

Nabil Saouabi, Tristes tropiques │ Le général dans son labyrinthe, 2017-18, Graphite on Fabriano paper, 29.7 x 21 cm

Khaled Ben Slimane, Le 99 noms de dieu, 2018, Ceramics, Various dimensions

Nja Mahdaoui, Maya, 2018, Mixed media on linen canvas, 200 x 200 cm

Art Dubai Contemporary

Booth A14

21-24.03.2018

For its twelfth consecutive year of participation in Art Dubai, Elmarsa is pleased to present a selection of five artists who come together in a group exhibition at our booth A14 that highlights Tunisia’s contemporary art scene. While working in their respective visual languages and unique mixed media practices, as well as belonging to distinct generations, Omar Bey, Thameur Mejri, Nabil Saouabi, Khaled Ben Slimane and Nja Mahdaoui share a passionate and intellectual engagement with social, cultural and political transformations of this North African nation. The exhibition offers insight into the complex dynamics of the contemporary condition and context in a region of the world where the boundaries between the local and the global as well as the personal and the political are increasingly eroding as a result of the ubiquity of mass media.