Iyad Qanazea Gallery voyages with Salwa Zeidan’s ‘Minimalist Journey’
ABU DHABI: Acclaimed Lebanese self-taught artist Salwa Zeidan is showcasing her collection of sculptures and paintings at the Iyad Qanazea Gallery in Abu Dhabi (July 10 – Sept. 10). The show, titled ‘Minimalist Journey’, offers art enthusiasts an opportunity to immerse themselves in Zeidan’s profound abstract minimalist artistry. Zeidan’s work, renowned for its exploration of inner light and peace, is the result of two decades of artistic mastery and personal philosophy. Zeidan (b. 1956, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon), is a prominent painter, sculptor, curator and gallerist, who has made a significant impact on the art scene in Abu Dhabi, where she has been based for the past four decades. Her work spans various mediums, including mixed media paintings, conceptual art, stone sculptures and monumental works with stainless steel and composite materials.
For well over 35 years, she has focused on unrestricted self-expression, projecting profound truths, serenity, and enlightenment. A pioneer of abstract minimalist art in West Asia, she also integrates calligraphy in her creations. The spiral motif, symbolising human evolution and growth, is a central theme in her sculptures and paintings. Her minimalist abstract style is influenced by artists like Franz Kline, Pierre Soulages, and Antoni Tapies. Zeidan translates her sensitivity and flair for spirituality into lyricism. A master of the art of restraint, in the works shown in the gallery, she intertwines letterism, lyricism, expressionism and minimalism to create her own formal vocabulary, particularly in painting.
The black undulating stark lines and motifs in her drawings and paintings are reminiscent of bodies of knowledge. A deeper look at the conceptual structure of her figures reveals the divergence and convergence of personal emotions and aspirations. Her brushstrokes are limpid, yet powerful in their fragile and delicate elegance. Her abstract minimalist work stems from her spiritual nature and reflects her strong beliefs and ongoing search for inner light, consciousness and peace. “While painting,” she says, “I try to create a different shapes of my concerns, feelings, anxieties, joys and confusion ... they all turn into a spiritual source of energy which I try to release in my work.”
She has exhibited her creations in many countries since 1989, and has participated in various art fairs and biennales around the world. Today, her paintings can be found in galleries and private collections internationally and regionally. In 1999, she was invited by the Royal Academy of Science International Trust in London to hold an exhibition dedicated to peace titled ‘Culture for Peace’; Zeidan is an active endorser of peace and dedicates all her private exhibitions to the cause.
In 2006, she became the Ambassador to Lebanon of the global organisation World Peace Marker Project (WPMP). She has won many prizes, including the fourth prize at the Florence Biennale - Italy, being one among 960 artists from 72 countries there. She has been an active member of several art associations regionally and internationally such as the Association of Artists Beirut, Lebanon; Exit Art, New York; IAC, Barcelona, Spain; and is a Member and Special Advisor for the AIAP UNESCO, France, to name a few. She lives and works in Abu Dhabi where manages her eponymous art gallery.
“Join us at the Iyad Qanazea Gallery to experience the unparalleled talent of Salwa Zeidan and delve into a world where art transcends boundaries and speaks to the soul,” says Iyad Qanazea, gallery owner. “Don’t miss this opportunity to witness the visionary creations of a well-recognised artist.” Iyad Qanazea is a Palestinian businessman and art supporter, who has been based in Abu Dhabi since 2018. He established the Iyad Qanazea Gallery a year ago in Abu Dhabi. “The gallery is commited to showcasing artists from the UAE and the Arab world,” he says. He has worked on supporting the artist community in Palestine, UAE, Morocco and elsewhere in the MENA region.
Iyad is commited to supporting the market for these artists; it is his firm belief that without economic backing, they will not prosper and find their deserved place in art history. “We are proud to be one of the early independent contemporary art galleries to open in Abu Dhabi in the heart of the city, representing a community of artists from the UAE and the Arab world,” he says. Located in Al Mina Street, the gallery is hosted between old Abu Dhabi city in Al Zahiyah and the Tourist Club residential areas, while facing the crossroads to Abu Dhabi’s new cultural districts in Mina Zayed and Saadiyat.
The gallery’s larger mandate is to showcase artists from West Asia, North Africa and South Asia, extending into the Global South. “Abu Dhabi is a city of crossroads and one that has spread its arms to embrace this region,” Iyad says. “The gallery wants to be a beacon that conveys the same spirit. We have shown works from artists who were the leading pioneers of thought, and their poems and paintings in Abu Dhabi, such as veteran artist and poet Mohammed Al Mazrouei and other voices from the region, both young and established, which are contemporary voices that carry the hopes and dreams for a new world of peace and prosperity. The gallery has already exhibited the likes of Palestinian Chicago-based artist Asma Ghanem, Emirati artist Mahra Al Falahi, Lebanese artist Salwa Zeidan and represents artists like Latifa Saeed and Rawdha Al Ketbi.”
LONDON: British singer-songwriter Griff’s career has been an undeniable whirlwind. Less than two years ater releasing her first single — and finishing her A-level exams — she won the Brit Award for Rising Star. Then she opened for Dua Lipa. Then Ed Sheeran. Then Coldplay. Then Taylor Swit. In between those gigs, solo shows and music releases, she worked on the songs that make up her debut album, “Vertigo,” out now. “The usual steps that you take as a new artist have been a bit, like, upside-down,” the 23-year-old, whose full name is Sarah Faith Griffiths, told The Associated Press in an interview. “An album is such a step hiting the ground, and it’s such a milestone I’ve always wanted to get to.”
In that sense, this moment feels like a career beginning, she said. The immersive pop album tracks the emotions that come with that kind of whirlwind — alongside those that follow other destabilizing events, like growing up and experiencing heartache.
Griff said inspiration for the project came, “funnily enough,” from navigating a spiral staircase in one of the houses she wrote the album in — in this case, a cottage belonging to the musician and songwriter Imogen Heap. She said the physical reality of the experience easily lent itself to an emotional equivalent, and it’s stuck with her ever since.
“That was just a very real, tangible feeling that I have had, and still have, at this stage in my life,” she said. “Tears For Fun” and “Miss Me
Too” explore that dizzying emotion through layered productions, informed by the large-scale spaces she’s performed in already. “Astronaut” features piano by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who encouraged Griff to rework an initial drat of the song into a ballad. “You said you needed space, go on then, astronaut,” she concedes in her signature belt, the grounded approach adding weight to her accusations.
“It’s almost like I’m bit greedy with emotions when it comes to songs,” she said, describing her desire to pair wrenching lyrics with catchy, upbeat productions. “For me, music is all about moving people and triggering emotion.”
The catharsis is shared, then, by the artist and her listeners, she said, an approach Martin has encouraged.
“He really believes that as creatives and writers, we’re just kind of vessels, and creativity will flow through us and ideas will find their way to the right people,” she said. “And I think that kind of philosophy is really reassuring.”
Griff succeeds in her mission not only with her sound, but also the visuals she and her team produce. Since the release of the album’s lead single, she’s consistently worn a spiral in her hair. Song visualizers see her dancing in billowing fabrics on the same spiral drawn in sand. She, like her pop mentors, knows an album “era” is a multimedia endeavour.
Perhaps even more revealing of her inner life, however, are the more casual glimpses of Griff the creator. In preparation for her gig opening for a night of Swit’s Eras Tour in London, she documented the process of turning blue and white fabric into a dress inspired by a lyric in Swit’s “But Daddy I Love Him.”
“I was always draping bedsheets around myself,” she said of her childhood. “I was the only girl — I’ve got two older brothers and a lot of foster siblings — so that was my way of entertaining myself, playing dress up. I think I just like making things.” As Swit said from the stage: “This girl, she is so creative on every single level.” True to that spirit, Griff says she is ready to keep creating. “To be totally honest, I feel excited to get back in the studio,” she said. “I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give.”