Ramadan Nights at Athr Gallery

Athr Gallery is currently running in parallel the Nada Debs Design and ‘Journey of the Line’ exhibitions in Wing B of the gallery space that had its opening last week.
Nada Debs, a Lebanese furniture designer who owns three retail outlets under the Nada Debs brand in Beirut, with representation of her ‘East & East’ design collection in NY, Dubai, Cairo, Amman and Geneva, creates modern furniture and home accessories that reflect an overriding influence of the Middle Eastern and Far East design craftsmanship, whilst incorporating the utilitarian concept of western interior architecture.
The influences of her Arab heritage, upbringing in Japan, and formal training in the West, cleverly permeate into the overall personality of her minimalist contemporary design mandate, whispering into the warmth of the Arabian opulence a silence of the Zen philosophy.
The exhibition features a sprawling range of her home accessories boutique collection, which includes wing trays, cake trays, organic bowls, jewelry boxes, mirrors, backgammon boards, and a furniture line that captures the true essence of eastern craftsmanship through modern and contemporary designs.
‘Journey of the Line’ is the first group calligraphy exhibition organized by the gallery, spanning styles and expressions of contemporary calligraphic Islamic art.
The prominent repertoire of artists comes from China, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia.
Participating artists include Haji Noordeen, Hassan Massoudy, Mouneer Al-Sha’raani, Dr Nassar Mansour, Farah Behbehani, Dr Hilal Kazan, Nja Mehdaoui and Samir Sayegh.
“I wanted to show the different types of calligraphy that there are today. From the conceptual to the classical, and the ones that have broken the boundaries. We’ve brought some very established and industrious names in calligraphy here. We intended for this exhibition to be more educational to show what kind of quality works there are in the field of calligraphy,” said Aya Alireza, curator of the ‘Journey of the Line’ exhibition.
The exhibition is truly a passage into the history of the calligraphic Arabic script exploring styles through its primal birth, traditionalistic adherence to the hurufiyya school of calligraphy, its metamorphosis, growth and evolution into modern expressions of the art today.
The Nada Debs Design and ‘Journey of the Line’ exhibitions will continue for the month as part of Athr Gallery’s Ramadan Nights celebrations until Aug. 30.
A series of lectures and workshops on the art of calligraphy will be conducted at the gallery by leading guest experts and calligraphers during the month. Pre-registration is required as seats are limited.
For more information, call 02 2845009
or contact: [email protected]
Gallery working hours: Sat-Wed: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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Email: [email protected]