The newly opened, permanent Downtown space of Artual Galley inaugurated the occasion with its first exhibition, “The Thousand and One Nights,” displaying the varied interpretation of seven American artists of the renowned tale of Scheherazade and stories she spun each night. Gallery owner Hind Ahmad opened the space after the popularity of previous pop-up exhibitions.
The space will program shows of Western contemporary art every four to six weeks.
“I’m delighted to be collaborating with [curator] Maria Brito,” she said.
“I love the way she curates and her eye for spotting talented artists is renowned and [this] young, dynamic and innovative approach is what I want Artual to feel like.”
The show presents 13 works by Rosson Crow, Allison Zuckerman, Holly Coulis, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Jonathan Chapline, Monica Kim Garza and Canyon Castator.
Each has abstracted a tale, such as “Aladdin,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” or “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor” depicted the strength of Scheherazade or the mesmerizing worlds she created.
Chapline’s work offers bright and whimsical paintings and a set of sculptures - all drawing from the icons and symbols of the oriental folk tale.
The acrylic has been used to make flat, velvety surfaces of block colors, build to create an almost cartoonish aesthetic.
“As a kid I grew up listening to it on tape and reading the book so it becomes a weirdway of reconnecting with my childhood,” Chapline said.
“It’s been this open ended thing. There is the story of the king and Scheherazade telling all these different narratives, so I pulled from the different narratives and one of them is Scheherazade talking about a story and its illustrations.
“Usually in animation there’s this image of the opening of the book and I always thought that was funny trope to create,” he said, referring to the purple and yellow painting “The Book.” “How do you go about making a painting about a narrative? Well, you open the book and begin the tale.”
Brito intended the show to be a form of multicultural dialogue, by selecting American artists.
“I chose artists that work mostly with figuration and on interiors,” she said, “because when you read those tales and see through art history what prior artists like Picasso and Delacroix made based on ‘1001 Nights,’ they created beautiful worlds with imagination.”
Other works on show include Richmond-Edwards’ untitled collage self-portrait piece, where she imagines herself as Scheherazade, empowered by her cleverness and strong character at a time when women were limited by their culture and society.
“Some made more political work, like [Canyon Castrator,] who recreated ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ by putting images of Nixon, George Bush and the Pink Panther,” Brito said, “as his take on the Forty Thieves - some real, some imaginary - in today’s world.
Rosson Crow’s large, mystical-looking “Scheherazade’s Domain,” aims to peer inside the storyteller’s imagination and depict the worlds and images that she created to tell her fables.
“Rosson is known for making fantastical interiors and for using art history in her paintings,” Brito said. “We talked about the interiors of artists like Delacroix, who painted places that looked like harems, which were filled with lamps, fixtures hanging from the ceiling and Persian rugs.
“I told her to think through those images and she came up with this incredibly rich and layered piece,” she added. “I think this is one of the best paintings she’s every created.”
Though Brito was able to shed some light on the interpretations, she admitted that some of their artist kept their concepts hidden.
“Part of living with, collecting and seeing art is that you come up with your own interpretations,” she said. “That’s what you take with you.”
“The Thousand and One Nights” is up at Artual Gallery, Mina al-Hosn, until April 26.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
