Lawrie Shabibi at Art Dubai
Booth D4
Lawrie Shabibi is delighted to return to the 13th edition of Art Dubai with a booth presentation by two artists from the United Arab Emirates – Khorfokkan based Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim (b. 1962) and Dubai based Shaikha Al Mazrou (b. 1988), whose works are shown in dialogue for the first time. Artists of different generations, working in different media, both explore materiality in art.
Ibrahim’s practice is inspired by his deep connection to the natural environment of Khorfakkan, a rambling coastal town surrounded by the rocky Hajar Mountains in the UAE. For Art Dubai he presents a group of sculptures whose choice of materials is rudimentary and local – discarded plastic bottles, clay, earth, paper – as are their forms and colours. Alongside the sculptures he presents paintings from his Sitting Man series – an intriguing series in different sizes and colours in which the head of the sitter is always cropped, moving the focus instead to the bodily posture and clothing. Linking each of these works is Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim’s compulsive and intuitive sense of repetition, variation and humor.
Al Mazrou by contrast uses colour and geometric lines to provide perspective and depth or to impart boundaries on her works exhibiting a probe on the nature of illusion. For Art Dubai she presents a brand new series of geometric bright coloured metal sculptures that play with positive and negative tension and illusions of colour and material. Her irreverent use of material and its apparent contradictions, using durable materials that are made to resemble something soft, pliable or ephemeral, is central to her practice. Her works – whilst rooted in sculpture – also experiment with colour and painting.
