Captivating Moroccan Calligrapher to showcase “Faces” at Art Space
Leading contemporary gallery, Art Spaces brings another compelling exhibition to Dubai
Dedicated to promoting Middle Eastern contemporary art, Art Space gallery is proud to announce it will be presenting the works of Zakaria Ramhani from the 15 April 2008 to 30 April 2008.
“We’re proud to invite Zakaria Ramhani to Art Space from Tangiers, Morrocco. As a young artist he shows amazing talent through his unique creations using Arabic calligraphy to create faces. His work represents a growing number of young artists from the Middle East that we are keen to support by inviting them to exhibit at our gallery,” says Art Space gallery’s managing director Maliha AL-Tabari.
“Ramhani cleverly turns simple but colorful modern writing and language in the creation of vibrant and mesmerizing faces that draw the viewer in. We believe his work is extremely appealing and its originality will lead to great interest from our valued investors. We strongly support his talent and are truly excited to welcome him to Dubai to share his work with the city.”
Following a successful show at “Word into ART exhibition”, organized by the British Museum, Ramhani’s exhibition at Art Space will follow the same theme featuring pieces from a series of works titled “De droite à gauche”.
His innovative work involves investigations and uses a variety of writing and language from which a face emerges to create a portrait. The letter and face each become an illusion in turn. Overtime the series has evolved and many techniques, mediums and supports can be seen throughout his collection.
Commenting on his artistic endeavour, Ramhani says, “It is significant that it came after I was an Artist in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. When I returned home to Tangier (Morocco) after spending eight months living in France, I began writing on the canvas rather than painting on it. I no longer painted pictures; I wrote portraits with the materials instead.”
“The Arabic language is written from right to left, hence the title of the project. I use the plasticity, symbolism and aesthetic of writing to reveal and explain the notions of identity, culture and art that are generated by language. In concert with Arabic, the French language became a reality, my reality: the confrontation of cultures that is my life,” concluded Ramhani.
Born in Tangiers, Morocco in 1983, Ramhani graduated from the plastic arts section of the Centre Pedagogique Regional de Tanger in 2004 and from the Cervantes Centre for engraving in 2007.
Ramhani then went on to teach art at the “Oued amlil” in Taza from 2004 to 2006, and at the children’s painting studio at the Foundation Tanger el Medina in 2004. The artist has been involved with conferences on contemporary Moroccan art and was resident artist at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2006.
Ramhani has participated in a number of group exhibitions, most recently Juillet 2006 at the Galerie Europia, Paris, which was concerned with the war in Lebanon in the summer 2006 and a solo exhibition, Corps possedes/Solitude collective, at the Galerie CROUS des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
