August 2022
The Young Emerging Artist’s Prize 2022, Midterm exhibition “We are center of the Union: Reflection on self-portraits”
Stal Gallery’s Young Emerging Artist’s Prize (YEAP) initiated and mentored by the internationally known Omani artist Hassan Al Meer - has become a unique platform for art making since 2015. This program has been the first of its kind in Oman supporting a new generation of rising artists.
The program provides access for professional skills development, online profiling, usage of multimedia technology and displaying a wider presentation of the visual arts. This contest has grown to become the most anticipated art program of Oman at a nonprofit art gallery Stal - the Alserkal Group’s first cultural project in the Sultanate of Oman.
The Program is focused on the educational aspect and will culminate in an open-ended public demonstration, including:
artist talk
workshop
exhibition
For our 6th Annual Young Emerging Artist Prize, Stal Gallery is especially proud to support and to be at the forefront of this initiative for the Omani youth. Throughout this program, they are mentored by artists with invaluable experiences and with reputable international recognition.
The 22’YEAP Edition started from Midterm exhibition “Center of the Union: Reflection on self-portraits”, Under the auspices of HH Sayyida Basma Al Said, featuring artworks of the finalists for the inaugural Annual Stal Gallery YEAP 2022 Edition: Salim Al Masoudi, Bashair Al Balushi, Kawthar Al Harthi, Israa Al Balushi, Huria Al Harrasi, Marwa Al Bahrani, Khadija Al Maamari, Ammar Al Kiyumi with Majeda Al Hinai - Grand Prize winner 20' Young Emerging Artist Prize.
The program is curated by Hassan Al Meer - Stal Gallery’s art director and curator, assistant curator Ruqaiya Mazar, supervision and direction Dr. Volodymyra Sobolevska, Stal Gallery Manager.
The artists will share some work-in-progress and their thoughts on the subject ““We are center of the Union: Reflection on self-portraits”.
“You are the centre of the universe. The world revolves around you. Because life is not linear and we don’t all reside in.
We are all on the same flat surface of existence, in which everything that happens is uniform. The Earth is a sphere, our lives are dynamic, and we all experience the world differently...” - Hassan Meer, Art Curator for YEAP 2022.
This exhibition delivers artworks in ways that haven’t been delivered before whether it’s in concept, materials or presentation.
The exhibition will be on display at Stal Gallery through August 2022, with opening inauguration on 14th August at 7:30 pm.
© Stal Gallery
SALIM AL-MASOUDI
Different but one and the same
Photography, Installation Art, 2022
I think of this installation as an unfinished inventory of fragments: objects, memories, remnants of the past, and other inventions. It is an improvisational site in which the constructed and the ready made are used to question our making of the world through language and knowledge. The arrangements are schematic, inviting the viewer to move into a space of speculation. It relies on our desires for beauty, poetics and order.
The work thus far has used the frame of the room to propose a secret history of cultural expectations in an unchanging culture, and in the process, point to how in modernity, its impact on the ever-changing familial dynamics which are hidden in plain sight. I have found the histories of brutalism and minimalism to be useful in the rearranging of received ideas. The objects I make are placed in the canon of modernist art, in hopes of making visible what is overlooked.
About artist
Salim's artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. Often referencing Arabic history, his work explores the varying relationships between popular culture and fine art. While Salim uses a variety of materials and processes in each project, his methodology is consistent. Although there may not always be material similarities between the different projects they are linked by recurring formal concerns and through the subject matter. Salim's usage of subject matter in his work determines the materials and the forms of the work. Each project often consists of multiple works, often in a range of different media, grouped around specific themes and meanings. During research and production, new areas of interest arise for Salim and lead him to the next body of work.
BASHAIR AL-BALUSHI
Multiple Identities
Installation work, videography 2022
I see myself as being like the sea. I am of multiple identities like the sea. I don’t like to be satisfied with being a human being who comes from one roots, identity, culture & environment. I always love diving deeper into cultures & identities.
About artist
Bashair Al-Balushi an interior designer, furniture designer, photographer & artist. Interested in Omani folklore & art, as well as modern Omani architecture & the Renaissance in Oman. Graduated from Scientific College Of Designn in Muscat the major is Interior Design. The owner & the manager of department of innovation & design in Design Skills Studio.
AMMAR ALKIYUMI
Standard 1
Standard 2
Standard 3
Installation Art, 2022
In this collection of work, the artist uses a collection of mass produced objects, specifically concrete blocks, house number plates and copies of photographs as a metaphor for standardization and lack of individuality in architecture. The grid organization and symmetry in the composition further emphases this idea.
About artist
Ammar Alkiyumi is an architect and artist whose work revolves around challenging the use of standards, styles and images in the creation of architecture.
As an architect, he refuses to start a design project with reference images or a predetermined style. Ammar believes that a buildings identity should not be decided, but should be born as a result of a buildings reaction to environmental, Economical, structural and social context and a reflection of the individual users.
Ammar is skeptical that the promise of an ideal Arabian city, can be achieved through any kind of homogenization of identity or the realization of stereotypical images.
HURIA AL HARRASI
Life is not what we see
Video installation, 2022
We are stuck in our own heads.
We are stuck in the way we see life.
We live a life designed and built by our subconscious mind before, we see what our eyes force us to see and explain what our mind forces us to explain.
Perspectives are lenses that differ from person to person.
Some are broken, scratched, dirty, or clean.
That is why, from time to time, we must rethink things in a different way than usual in order to discover life from various perspectives.
About artist
Huria Al Harrasi is a visual artist and a graduate of Urban Planning and Architectural design of the German University. Art has always been a part of her life since she was a child; it makes her happy and carries her to her own world. She is interested in highlighting her art in various ways and mediums, and she follows the principle of experimenting in the majority of her works because each new experience brings new skills and feelings to her heart. Huria is still looking for her own style and trying out various types of art.
MARWA Al-BAHRANI
Endless Effort
Installation, 2022
Life keeps directing me on a different path, away from my ambitions. There’s always a obstacle in my path, but those difficulties serve to push me in new directions, with time I still find my way to my ambition. My vision will never be diminished, no matter how hard or how many dark holes swallow me.
Coal is a representation of my willpower.
That’s my strength. That’s my growth.
About artist
Marwa Al Bahrani is a Visual Artist who loves drawing since childhood and this hobby has been her guide though her design journey. Al Bahrani was always fascinated by the field of Art & design. Her interest in graphic design started when she once came across a package that was beautifully designed by SNASK studio . Since then she enjoyed taking complex problems and solving them by creating innovative design solutions that are further implemented into a brand or product. She graduated from The Academy of Arts University with an MFA in Graphic Design in 2019 and she received a BFA in Graphic Design in 2013.
After graduating from the The Academy of Arts University, Marwa and her sisters, Manar and Manal started their own brand called blanc:space where they focused on designing unique tote bags and later on branched out to designing sweatshirts and hoodies. She also partnered with her friends Farah and Maryam and co-founded a Design studio called Grid+Grain, where they are currently working on multidisciplinary projects such as branding, interaction design, social media, exhibitions and many more .
As Marwa develops her design career she is focusing mainly on Strategic Identity & Brand Development, Art Direction Visual Narratives, Editorial Design, Packaging Design, Painting & Screen-printing.
MAJEDA ALHINAI
Grand Prize winner
20' Young Emerging Artist Prize
Deep Surface, 2016
Mixed Media Wall Installation
UV Print on Acrylic & Wood Panels 365 cm x 182 cm
Currently, the body of work I am progressing within my design practice, deals with mindfulness and sense of self. The works range from the installation scale to smaller sculpture pieces. Investigating these new topics has created an interesting shift in the way I present the work. I am also still learning how to situate the work in terms of its audience and broader context in the art world.
About artist
MajedaAlhinai is an artist, architectural designer and educator. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Nottingham (UK) and an M.S. in Design Theory & Pedagogy as well as a Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc where she received the Graduate Thesis Award for her study of surface depth and digital fabrication applications.
Majeda was the 2017/18 Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow at Kent State CAED. She has taught and been an invited guest critic at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Ohio State, Syracuse, RPI and Kent State. Her work has been exhibited at Hauser & Wirth, A+D Museum in Los Angeles and the Venice Architecture Biennale. She has worked as a designer in architectural offices in Oman, Austria and Los Angeles. Majeda is the co-founder of Brash Collective, a multidisciplinary design collaborative motivated by contemporary culture, formalism, and technology.
KHADIJA AL MAAMARI
Trying to be myself
Photography, Installation Art, 2022
We lived in our nature and happiness away from everything trying to adapt to our environment and our society, everything comes from it, despite knowing that what happens is not like us, but because we are in this circle, we are buried in every moment and time, and despite everything I try to be me every time explain my simple instinct without being affected by anything. Trying to resist and stay away as much as possible from the extraneous things in the society.
I try to adapt and try to be myself despite the extraneous influences.
About artist
Khadija Al-Maamari, a graduate of Sultan Qaboos University, an arts teacher, and a visual artist. She considered art for her to be life and the outlet that she reveals all her secrets to him, as she expressed what goes on inside her in the form of artworks represented in plastic paintings, photography, and the art of silent nature.
Khadija took it upon herself to combine imagination, reality and thought with society to sail us from the shore of her inception to the spirit of authentic art.
ISRAA MAHMOOD AL BALUSHI
Shamsatoon (Lady of the Sun)
Installation, 2022
My great-grandmother always used to say that when a woman wears gold, she brings blessings to the place she’s in, and so, she always made sure we wore golden durr (earrings). – In Arab and Balochi cultures alike, we believe gold to have the spiritual power to bring happiness, peace and stability to those who wear it.
As she’s long gone, I still live by the words she has passed on and I wear gold ornaments to mirror back all the light and harmony she has blessed us with, to the world around me.
About artist
Israa Mahmood Al Balushi is an Omani multimedia artist, and conceptual photographer. She has a BSc in Urban Planning and Architectural Design and is currently working as a Creative Designer. Her work often explores the relationship between urbanism, and culture. In hopes of giving an intimate insight into the existing space, their connection to people and fluidity that exists in-between.
HASSAN MEER
Art Curator for Young Emerging Artist Prize (YEAP 2022)
Hassan Meer is an established Omani and international Artist, Designer, Art Curator and Gallerist, developing an original technique, with a unique particularity. He received acknowledgements through various art publications and specialized magazines reviewed by famous art critics and his artworks have been exhibited in may prestigious museums and foundations, contemporary and historical venues. In addition of working as an artist and a designer, he also conducted Art courses in Sultan Qaboos University and The Fine Art society.
RUQAIYA MAZAR
Ass.Curator for Young Emerging Artist Prize (YEAP 2022)
Conceptual artist
Ruqaiya Mazar is a contemporary Omani artist. She is best known for her work in illustration, photography and video which examines the relationship between herself and the place she belongs to. Through her artworks, she explores the tension between her individual expression and existence within the broader context of her surroundings.
Her works have been shown at the Stal Gallery, Muscat, and The Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2019, she was commissioned by The Wapping Project, London, to produce a new body of work for a touring exhibition Resonance. Her works are included in several private and corporate collections. In addition to her artistic practice, Ruqaiya Mazar works as a graphic designer.
_________
@bashair_albalushi
@israa.balushi
@amurvisuals
@7uria_
@khadija.22
@ammaralqme
@kawthar_alharthi
@ruqaiyamazar
@fromswuiq
@marbelousb
@majedaalhinai
@hassanmeer_33
Supported by: Alserkal Group
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