At Art Represent we are always busy, and while we spend a quite some time on planning exhibitions or researching different business ideas (such as for example the pay in instalments plan that was launched late last year), most of my time is devoted to our artists.
Over 30 artists from all over the world have already signed with Art Represent, but we are always looking to expand that group with more talent, and what better time to introduce you to some of our new faces than at the beginning of the new year. Their profiles and artworks will be available online in the upcoming weeks, so keep an eye out for them!
Dalia Ferreira
Dalia Ferreira is a Venezuelan artist and journalist currently based in France. Her background as a journalist brought her in touch with documentary photography, a medium she now uses as the basis for her artworks. Her latest series ‘Bottled World Series’ Ferreira uses the raw photographic materials to create a city in a bottle.
“We bring pieces of the cities we visit home with us. We classify them, we save elements in our private emotional jars: the noise, the speed, the street, the architecture, the stories of each pedestrian we come across, their fears, their joys… All of that is enclosed and bottled in our heart, our soul, so we can see them again and again, from our private sphere.”
Ferreira has participated in more than 30 art exhibitions and 13 solo shows. In 2014 Ferreira was the first Latin American artist selected by the Google Cultural Institute as a Google Open Gallery Artist.
Heba Abed
Hera Abed is a Saudi artist and designer currently based in Jeddah, where she also finished her master’s degree in Fine Art at the King Abdelaziz University. Her work explores the ‘scotoma’, or blind spot, and the potential applications to her own society. In her work, Heba explores the westernisation of the arabic language and culture and the problems that coincide with that, such as incorrect translations or the substitutions or symbols for Arabic phenomena that do not exist in other Western languages. Another part of her practise also focusses on highlighting the neglected feminist arguments in the society she is a part of. Her works have been included in many different exhibitions in Saudi Arabia, and most notably also in the Rome and Florence Biennales of 2015.
Alexander Ikhide
Alexander Ikhide is a London based visual artist who was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Alexander recently graduated from the Bath Spa University with a BA in contemporary art. Working mainly in digital collages, Alexander creates compositions that are exploring themes of identity and representation. “As an African, as well as an artist, it is important for me to create new representations.” By using different found images and graphics he explores sexuality, race, bodies, and his own cultural identity.
Khalid Albaih
Khalid Albaih is a Sudanese cartoonist currently living in Doha, Qatar. Taking his inspiration from current events, Albaih is using cartoons as a medium to bring people closer and to foster a better understanding between different cultures. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Albaih said: “A lot of the problems are with the "clash of civilisations"; we have our own media and the West has theirs. They have no idea about what's going on over here, and this was always the problem, this miscommunication. So when you have a drawing that can be understood by a Republican in the US, or a far-right guy in Holland, and a Muslim critic from Saudi, everybody understands the same message and people get closer.”
After (unsuccesfully) trying to get his works out in to the world via traditional media, he took his works online around the same time as the first Arab Spring protests in 2011, and his works went viral. His works were shared online and Albaih quickly realised his works were taken of the net and painted on walls all over the Arab world, all the way from Tahrir Square to Beirut. Since then, the works from his ‘Khartoom” series have been exhibited all over the world. Major exhibitions include the 2013 Edge of Arabia exhibition in London and an exhibition series in 2014 at McGill University. Albeit was also asked to be a part of the ‘Arab Future and the Role of Europe” conference at the Peace Palace in the Hague in 2015.