Esquire Middle East announces Mohamed Abla: The Silk Road at Tabari, noting that the gallery was formerly known as Artspace Dubai.
The preview explains that Abla, born in Egypt, lived and studied in Europe as a young man and returned home in 1985 while keeping a studio in Germany, which gave him the eye of both an insider and an outsider. An early supporter of the revolts that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011, he was disillusioned by what followed and turned his gaze back in time to the mythology of the Silk Road, when the Middle East stood at a crossroads of trade and culture between East and West.
The exhibition brought together abstract works that combine calligraphy, collage and traditional techniques with a new series of paintings, The Silk Road, exploring folktales from North Africa, the Levant, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Esquire describes colours built up in layers that seem to float or dance as if on water, a process Abla likens to a "street act", and his choice of tales that reflect the instability after 2011.
Abla calls the series "joyful" and speaks of "serious play", hoping viewers will read the stories as fairy tales and invent their own. The Silk Road ran from 10 October to 24 November 2017 and was the first exhibition under the gallery's new name, Tabari.
