The Evening Standard's preview of Cromwell Place, the new gallery hub in South Kensington, announces that Tabari would present the London debut of the Palestinian hyperrealist artist Samah Shihadi.
Nancy Durrant visited Cromwell Place shortly before it opened in October 2020: five Grade II listed Victorian townhouses refurbished for around £20 million, offering 14 gallery spaces that members can book as they need. She talks to managing director Preston Benson and membership director May Calil about the idea, first conceived by the gallerist John Martin, of giving small and mid sized galleries a London base as rents rose and art fairs multiplied, and about how it might work while Covid restrictions kept collectors at home.
The article lists the opening programme, from Lehmann Maupin to the Sir Denis Mahon Foundation, and notes that two Dubai galleries were part of it: Tabari, presenting the London debut of Samah Shihadi, and Lawrie Shabibi, showing the Moroccan modernist Mohamed Melehi.
Samah Shihadi draws in pencil and charcoal with such precision that her works are often mistaken for photographs. Tabari presented her solo exhibition Hungry for Home in Dubai in 2018, and our exhibition archive also records her 2023 solo exhibition Roots at Museum MORE in the Netherlands. The Cromwell Place presentation was announced as the first showing of her work in London.