In every page a piece of me
2012
Solo Exhibition at Cuadro Gallery
The Secret Lives of Teapots: Nasir Nasrallah
As a child, Nasir Nasrallah spent his free time tinkering with spare parts in his grandfather’s antiquities shop set inside the old Alarsa Souk in the historic heart of Sharjah, which straddles the sea and a maze of coral-walled alleyways and courtyards. The shop’s magical clutter stood out in contrast to his father’s meticulously ordered cache of vintage coins, stamps, and bank notes. Both men’s habits directly influence Nasrallah’s practice today, which is equally grounded in the universal human habit of collecting, Emirati material culture, and carrying out an exhaustive examination of the evolving concept of the city.
Nasrallah’s studio is coincidentally situated just a few buildings behind his grandfather’s former store in Bait Al Shamsi, a historic 19th century home complete with traditional wind towers which the government has repurposed into spaces for artists. Oddly, Nasrallah’s space is fitted with the thick glass doors one would expect to find at the entrance to a store. Inside, canvases of all sizes lean against the musty walls echoing the aesthetics of the functional grocery, spice, and knick knack stalls in the souk beyond.
The curious influence of Nasrallah’s Engineering degree in Telecommunications from Khalifa University is evident in his ink drawings on display at Cuadro—which have a mechanical, blueprint-like quality to them—hinting that the artist is also a half-wild industrialist capable of bringing his “Small Monsters” series to life with the flick of his pen with blinking eyes on legs or building a head-shaped house entered through an open mouth according to ‘Houses with Stories.’ Back in 2013, Nasrallah fed whimsical drawings and stories to the public imagination with a vending machine installation in the Tashkeel booth at Art Dubai, which dispensed stories in place of soda. It is nearly impossible to view these pieces without imagining the artist as a young boy cannibalizing his grandfather’s antique contraptions, figuring out how they worked, then re-constructing their bodies.
While studying, Nasrallah concurrently took art courses at The Emirates Fine Arts Society, working under Mohammed Kazem, who was one of the country’s first conceptual artists to pave the way for today’s established contemporary art scene. Nasrallah explains, “Mohammed showed us that art is more than a still life. I was very confused at the beginning. At first I asked myself, Is this really art at all? But now I’ve become part of the tribe.”
Through Kazem, he was introduced to Cezanne, and the French painter’s influence can arguably be found in both ‘Markets’ and ‘Stores.’ Just as Nasrallah’s work is grounded in Sharjah, Cezanne’s body of work was also bound within the city where he was born and lived, Aix-en-Provence. Elements of local culture are deeply evident in Cezanne’s famous still life painting, ‘Apples and Oranges (1895-1900), from the orchard-ripened blush of the weighty fruits, to the feminine scallops of the pure white tablecloth, draped like a woman’s discarded dress.
Markets, Nasrallah’s color-soaked 2012 series, served as a study for the subsequent year’s ‘Stores’ a portion of which is being shown at Cuadro. Selecting 20 views of specialty stalls, Nasir reflected the serialization of various fruits, vegetables, and wooden crates that takes place in local specialty stalls, at times breaking the shapes down to such abstraction that it became disorienting to recognize commonplace objects, forcing viewers to be more present in the everyday curatorial act of selecting one’s food.
While ‘Stores’ (which was awarded first prize at the Emirates Fine Arts Society’s annual exhibition in 2013) continues with the same theme, here Nasrallah’s lines are less animated and more painterly, and he has limited himself to a rigid monochrome palette which compels the viewer to pause and consider the private life of each object that unfolds in the shadows once the customers have gone home and the shop lights have been shut off for the night. His trademark Khaleeji teapots are tucked into corners in places, hinting at the idea that these traditional symbols of family and the majlis are also silent observers of conversations and receptacles of secrets with a life of their own. It is questionable whether the paintings can really be classified as still life at all—or if they ought to be read as a series of revealing self-portraits.
-Danna Lorch
2012
Solo Exhibition at Cuadro Gallery
The Secret Lives of Teapots: Nasir Nasrallah
As a child, Nasir Nasrallah spent his free time tinkering with spare parts in his grandfather’s antiquities shop set inside the old Alarsa Souk in the historic heart of Sharjah, which straddles the sea and a maze of coral-walled alleyways and courtyards. The shop’s magical clutter stood out in contrast to his father’s meticulously ordered cache of vintage coins, stamps, and bank notes. Both men’s habits directly influence Nasrallah’s practice today, which is equally grounded in the universal human habit of collecting, Emirati material culture, and carrying out an exhaustive examination of the evolving concept of the city.
Nasrallah’s studio is coincidentally situated just a few buildings behind his grandfather’s former store in Bait Al Shamsi, a historic 19th century home complete with traditional wind towers which the government has repurposed into spaces for artists. Oddly, Nasrallah’s space is fitted with the thick glass doors one would expect to find at the entrance to a store. Inside, canvases of all sizes lean against the musty walls echoing the aesthetics of the functional grocery, spice, and knick knack stalls in the souk beyond.
The curious influence of Nasrallah’s Engineering degree in Telecommunications from Khalifa University is evident in his ink drawings on display at Cuadro—which have a mechanical, blueprint-like quality to them—hinting that the artist is also a half-wild industrialist capable of bringing his “Small Monsters” series to life with the flick of his pen with blinking eyes on legs or building a head-shaped house entered through an open mouth according to ‘Houses with Stories.’ Back in 2013, Nasrallah fed whimsical drawings and stories to the public imagination with a vending machine installation in the Tashkeel booth at Art Dubai, which dispensed stories in place of soda. It is nearly impossible to view these pieces without imagining the artist as a young boy cannibalizing his grandfather’s antique contraptions, figuring out how they worked, then re-constructing their bodies.
While studying, Nasrallah concurrently took art courses at The Emirates Fine Arts Society, working under Mohammed Kazem, who was one of the country’s first conceptual artists to pave the way for today’s established contemporary art scene. Nasrallah explains, “Mohammed showed us that art is more than a still life. I was very confused at the beginning. At first I asked myself, Is this really art at all? But now I’ve become part of the tribe.”
Through Kazem, he was introduced to Cezanne, and the French painter’s influence can arguably be found in both ‘Markets’ and ‘Stores.’ Just as Nasrallah’s work is grounded in Sharjah, Cezanne’s body of work was also bound within the city where he was born and lived, Aix-en-Provence. Elements of local culture are deeply evident in Cezanne’s famous still life painting, ‘Apples and Oranges (1895-1900), from the orchard-ripened blush of the weighty fruits, to the feminine scallops of the pure white tablecloth, draped like a woman’s discarded dress.
Markets, Nasrallah’s color-soaked 2012 series, served as a study for the subsequent year’s ‘Stores’ a portion of which is being shown at Cuadro. Selecting 20 views of specialty stalls, Nasir reflected the serialization of various fruits, vegetables, and wooden crates that takes place in local specialty stalls, at times breaking the shapes down to such abstraction that it became disorienting to recognize commonplace objects, forcing viewers to be more present in the everyday curatorial act of selecting one’s food.
While ‘Stores’ (which was awarded first prize at the Emirates Fine Arts Society’s annual exhibition in 2013) continues with the same theme, here Nasrallah’s lines are less animated and more painterly, and he has limited himself to a rigid monochrome palette which compels the viewer to pause and consider the private life of each object that unfolds in the shadows once the customers have gone home and the shop lights have been shut off for the night. His trademark Khaleeji teapots are tucked into corners in places, hinting at the idea that these traditional symbols of family and the majlis are also silent observers of conversations and receptacles of secrets with a life of their own. It is questionable whether the paintings can really be classified as still life at all—or if they ought to be read as a series of revealing self-portraits.
-Danna Lorch