Imad Habbab’s latest solo show ‘Identity Traces’ opens at Urbanist Art Gallery in Dubai this Friday 19 January 2024.
One of the experiences of observing an Imad Habbab painting is constantly questioning what one is looking at. Different imagery appear as one observes from different vantage points. The optical illusion of merging faces or archetypes with urban landscapes is one of the characteristics of his works. It is playful, yet subtle, and allows a sense of nostalgia or longing to the cities and places depicted.
In the collection of paintings for the upcoming ‘Identity Traces’ show, a certain sense of poetry emerges. One painting, depicting İstanbul’s iconic Bosphorus strait splitting the canvas in two, allows the European and Asian sides to transform into two faces. One face appears to whisper to the other. Within the textures of the faces are facets representing buildings, and, indeed, the Galata Tower appears amongst them. Thus, one recognizes İstanbul from both its urbanscape and its seascape.
Another more somber painting is the representation of Jesus Christ with His crown of thorns. The facial features are integrated into a dreary-colored villagescape, as his crown mirrors the illusion of branches of a tree.
The ode to Palestine and Jerusalem appears in two works. A man masked in a keffiyeh gazes out of the depth of the canvas, as the Palestinian scarf’s patterns integrate into what appears to be both a villagescape and a landscape. This juxtaposition of man and landscape has strongly symbolic undertones. In such works, the rules of scale completely evaporate. Land becomes man, woman, body, and vica versa. This technique is also applied to the aforementioned second painting. A representation of an olive tree merges into the city of Jerusalem, recognizable by its monument the Dome of the Rock. The colors are true to their natural form, but subdued and melancholy.
This juxtaposition of man and landscape has strongly symbolic undertones.
Maie El-Hage, art historian
The artist has chosen as a subject matter the different cities he has lived in: Beirut, Damascus and İstanbul. He explores the relationships between humans and urban sites, focusing on memory and often using nostalgia. He is referencing, in this exhibition, the Palestinian tragedy through his distinct and metaphorical approach. Thus, his paintings create memories of the cities of the Mediterranean region.
Imad Habbab is an award-winning Syrian artist based in Türkiye, whose work has been exhibited and recognized internationally. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 2011, which initiated his passionate embrace of impressionism that greatly influenced his opulent palette concepts. This led to the ‘Civilian Spectrum’ that was instigated in 2014 delving into the link and relationship between place, human traces and identity.
Imad moved to İstanbul in 2015 after a brief experience in Beirut, where he found new artistry and expressiveness that added wealth to his palette and concepts.
Imad Habbab’s show ‘Identity Traces’ opens at Urbanist Art Gallery on Friday 19 January at 5pm, and will remain on display until 9 February 2024. Make sure to pass by and see the show!
The Gallery is located at Box Park Al Wasl Road in Dubai.
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