Nadim Karam
dal 23/1/2013 al 8/3/2013
Segnalato da
23/1/2013
Nadim Karam
Ayyam Gallery, London
Karam's multi-disciplinary approach incorporates painting, drawing, sculpture and writing. His projects and installations are interventions that seek to animate cities as diverse as Melbourne, Prague, Dubai, Beirut, London and Nara, Japan. His solo exhibition inaugurates the gallery's first European location.
Ayyam Gallery (Damascus, Beirut, Dubai) is pleased to present an exhibition of
works by acclaimed Lebanese artist and architect Nadim Karam, which will
inaugurate the gallery’s first European location at 143 New Bond Street, London.
Karam’s multi-disciplinary approach incorporates painting, drawing, sculpture
and writing. Fusing various cultural influences, Karam’s works transcend social,
political and national borders, forming a unique pictorial language, replete with
recurring symbols, and with its own original characters and narratives. They
form an alphabet of sorts, in what is an on-going, sometimes absurdist,
exploration of the creative power of dreams.
Renowned for his public art and work in urban regeneration, Karam has most
recently been lauded for his architectural plan The Cloud, which made
international headlines for its revolutionary ideas on how to reconfigure public
space amidst Dubai’s growing cityscape. Karam’s projects and installations are
interventions that seek to animate cities as diverse as Melbourne, Prague, Dubai,
Beirut, London and Nara, Japan. These interventions often take the form of
large-scale steel sculptures, described as ‘urban toys’ by the artist. For Karam, it
is not only we, as humans, who need to dream, but our cities too – his urban
toys are acts of whimsy and a rebellion against the soulless nature of so many
modern spaces, bringing to life the environments around him. Says Karam: “Each
urban toy has a message. An open message ready to be inhabited by stories
which become mingled with history.”
The exhibition at Ayyam London will comprise a series of new paintings, rich in
colour and presenting a playful, almost satirical, perception of love and war.
These will be shown alongside editions of his iconic steel sculptural works,
recent examples of which have taken on a reflective quality, with burnished
surfaces, rusted browns and even beads and buttons making way for highly
polished mirrored steel. Pieces both reproduce the world around them and
disappear into it, becoming one with their surroundings.
Born in 1957 in Senegal, Nadim Karam lives and works in Beirut. In 1996, he
established Atelier Hapsitus, a satellite grouping of young Lebanese architects
and designers, that seeks to create an original urban vocabulary though large-
scale art installation and architectural works for various cities worldwide.
Karam’s work has appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide,
as well as biennales including Venice, Liverpool, and Gwangju. His sculptural
series, Closets & Closets, is currently on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe,
Paris. Past publications include The Cloud, The Desert and The Arabian Breeze
(2007); Urban Toys, (2006) and Voyage (2000). A forthcoming monograph
will be published by Skira in 2013.
About Ayyam Gallery
Founded by collectors and cousins Khaled and Hisham Samawi in Damascus in
2006, Ayyam Gallery sought to nurture Syria’s burgeoning and dynamic
contemporary art scene through landmark non-profit initiatives such as the
Shabab Ayyam Project, an incubator for emerging artists. Expansion into Beirut
and Dubai enabled Ayyam Gallery to broaden its scope from the promotion of
work by Syrian artists to those from the wider Middle East region. In doing so,
Ayyam Gallery has established itself as one of the foremost exponents of Middle
Eastern contemporary art to the international community.
Today Ayyam Gallery is recognised as a leading cultural voice in the region,
representing a roster of Arab and Iranian artists with an international profile
and museum presence, such as Nadim Karam, Safwan Dahoul, Samia Halaby,
Sadik Alfraji, Afshin Pirhashemi and Khaled Takreti. In 2013 two new galleries
will open in London and Jeddah. A number of non-commercial exhibitions, as well
as the launch of Ayyam Publishing, Ayyam Editions, and The Young Collectors
Auctions, have further succeeded in showcasing the work of Middle Eastern
artists with the aim of educating a wider audience about the art of this
significant region. In 2013 two new galleries will open in London and Jeddah.
Ayyam Damascus currently functions as a studio and creative haven for artists
who remain in the war-torn city.
Image: Nadim Karam & Atelier Hapsitus (Pierre Bou Absi, Ramona Abdo), Untitled, 2000-2002, Art Front Gallery, Japan,
Courtesy Nadim Karam
For press information and images please contact:
Toby Kidd and Amy Sutcliffe at Pelham Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 208 969 3959
Email: toby@pelhamcommunications.com or amys@pelhamcommunications.com
Preview: 24 January 2013, 6-8pm
Ayyam Gallery
143 New Bond Street - 1st Floor - W1S 2TP, London