MOJEH's autumn guide to Dubai exhibitions includes Tagreed Darghouth's Toys and Trophies at Tabari, alongside Chafa Ghaddar's first UAE solo show at Tashkeel.
The guide presents Toys and Trophies: From Zeus' Pandora to Barbie Doll as the Lebanese painter's latest exhibition, featuring works completed in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, which destroyed Darghouth's studio. Working in acrylic on canvas, MOJEH writes, she translates her grief into paintings about the socially constructed reality of feminine beauty, drawing on how gender is seen in Greek mythology, on social media and through the contemporary Barbie. The listing gives the opening as 20 October 2020.
The same article opens with Recesses, Chafa Ghaddar's first solo exhibition in the UAE, which launched Tashkeel's autumn programme. It describes a year of experiments with touch, colour and texture inspired by the ancient technique of fresco, and quotes Ghaddar on "the paradox of a medium that can be timeless and vulnerable". The guide also features Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at Lawrie Shabibi, Rashid Al Mulla at Coya and Kai at Opera Gallery.
Both artists are now represented by Tabari. Darghouth has since returned with Gardens and Jungles in 2023, and Ghaddar has shown with us at Abu Dhabi Art and in her solo Beneath Latent Skies.
