“Education saves lives - it's simple”

The 24^th of April in the River room at the House of Lords, Lahd Gallery was proud to attend the Thare Machi Education (TME) launch.

 

Thare Machi Education helps women and children in the developing Countries with exceptional projects against illness and illiteracy.

 

TME India, in particular, was founded as an independent registered Indian Charity based in Kolkata.

Actress, TV personality, comedienne and TME patron Nina Wadia was part of the attendees as well as former second world war SOE member and TME Chairman Helen Taylor Thompson OBE.

 

An startling video has shown the importance of education: children and families in India receive a number of DVD’s which gave information about illness and how to prevent them; thanks to TME Education a great deal of lives have been saved from AIDS and other terminal illnesses.

 

We at Lahd Gallery applaude TME’s concept and its emphasise on culture and knowledge . For more information please click on http://www.tme.org.uk/



 

Artist of the Month: Tagreed Al Bagshi

Lahd Gallery’s artist of the month for April is Tagreed Al Bagshi.

Although modern art was born in Saudi Arabia during the late fifties, it was only until the mid-eighties, that more female painters came out to exhibit their works publicly. Tagreed Al Bagshi was one of the first few artists to do just that. Since then, there has been a growing number of Saudi women artists, who were not only active on the local scene but also exhibit regularly abroad.

Tagreed Al-Bagshi was a founding member of the Saudi Society for Plastic Arts and heads the Women’s Committee of the Arts and Culture Association. Her work has been exhibited in numerous countries including Germany, Korea, India, Egypt, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Gulf States, Pakistan and Lebanon to name but a few.

Al-Bagshi’s low profile hides a strong personality. Her paintings reflect her character. She is attached to her traditions, her culture and at the same time she likes movement and always looks ahead. Her portraits convey a wide range of emotions reflected in a mesmerizing look of the eyes, and an intense facial expression. Fleeting moments are forever suspended in time on the canvas and feelings are trapped in a web of colours. 

For more information about Tagreed’s works, please contact the gallery.

Artist of the Month - Shurooq Amin

Lahd Gallery’s artist of the month for February is Shurooq Amin!  Multi-talented Shurooq is Kuwaiti/Syrian mixed-media interdisciplinary artist and an Anglophone poet, renowned for raising controversial questions via her raw images and taboo subject matter.  If this wasn't enough she is also a certified interior designer and a professor at Kuwait University.

The artist explores the polarity between the East and West through the depiction of high society women that dominate her canvases. Her work juxtaposes traditional with contemporary elements, which lends to subtle satire, yet the images do not profess to demean or criticise  nor to glorify and exaggerate.  They depict the girls in their embellished, fashionable state, an emblematic prototypical portrayal in which there tends to be a “sameness” of identity, expressing their individual sensual eroticism.

Unrelenting and inevitably controversial, Shurooq’s work explores the darker depths of society’s suppression and the fragility of human nature, in a critical analysis of a group of women who choose to live their lives on their own terms. Each of the paintings will finally be shot with a small Hornet bullet, from an M16 sniper gun, providing an allegory of society’s murder of a woman’s sensuality and passion.

For more information about Shurooq’s work please contact the gallery.

Suhair Sibai: Sweet Melancholy

Last night Lahd Gallery was proud to present the spectacular opening of it's new show "Sweet Melancholy" by Syrian artist Suhair Sibai!

A large gathering of art appreciators arrived at the gallery last night to enjoy and marvel at Suhair Sibai's splendid art works.  It was a warm and enjoyable evening, and we at Lahd Gallery were pleased to see so many familiar faces, and new ones also!

Suhair's large engaging canvases are filled with bright emotionally charged colours yet by contrast harbour a melancholic theme. By doing so she is not only drawing in the viewer, but alienating them also. Through this she is challenging the audience to think about self-identity, their inherent 'biases' and how we have got to our current situation.

Suhair uses the female form for her exploration into identity, and bold, striking, portraits are the result. She was artistically educated in the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles with its rich and diverse multiculturalism, and Suhair believes that it is the level of diversity that many of us are exposed to that has the potential to cause discord, displacement and division of the self.

Suhair herself puts it:

‘Ideas and ideals are mingled and morphed; metaphors are understood and misunderstood according to context and audience; cultures cross and clash. All the while, the authentic Self – if there is one – is via distortion, alteration, and compromise, made and unmade, struggling for accessibility to popular culture’.

Truly it is this outlook on life combined with a bold visual style that makes Suhair Sibai's work a truly unique experience.

Sweet Melancholy is on till 6th March 2013.

Artist of the month: Nabeela Al Khayer

Bahraini artist Nabeela Al Khayer is Lahd Gallery’s artist of this month!  Nabeela is a passionate artist, dedicated to her work and constantly appraising her artistic skills and pushing her own boundaries in search of new ideas and modes of expression. Femininity is the driving force behind her work, and this can be seen in her choice of colours and subject.

Starting out in the fashion industry, she underwent a trying experience from initial reluctance to entering into the unknown. The pleasant harmony and impression emanating from the special characteristics of the subject scene and epoch of the beautiful portraits of Nabeela AI Khayer, frequently communicated in warm colours, lay open the nature of kind, feminine, deeply hidden emotions. The non-disjointed and occasionally, superimposed parts of the body together with the emergence of faces and the folds of dresses all attract attention and cause the viewer to confine their thoughts within the frames of Nabeela’s expressive portraits, anticipating the revelation of the what is hidden beyond.

For a list of available artworks by Nabeela Al Khayer please contact the gallery.

Christmas Sales 2012

Lahd Gallery is pleased to announce it's 2012 Christmas Sale! We will have a spectacular array of art on offer, from a variety of different contemporary artists. The sale will be on till 10th January 2013, don't miss it! Please contact the gallery for more information as to what is on offer.

Finally from all of us at Lahd Gallery we would like to wish you a very enjoyable holiday season and a wonderful New Year!

Affordable Art Fair Hampstead 2012

This years Affordable Art Fair Hampstead looks set to impress with exhibits from over 100 galleries, including an exciting collection from Lahd Gallery for the first time! 

The Affordable Art Fair prides itself on its accessibility and friendly 
atmosphere, and caters for everyone from first time buyers to avid collectors.  Not only will there be a huge range of art to see but the event will also be packed full of activities including education programmes, workshops and talks.




Our confirmed artists so far are: 

Irini Gonou, a Greek artist whose work portrays elements of healing and protection within ancient traditions from different cultures. Gonou's work is created using raw materials, and brings the viewer back to ancient times of rituals and beliefs.





Hamid Naseer who through calligraphy looks for new inventive ways to represent colour through observing several works from the famous and renowned calligraphic artists. Hamid Naseer feels that the art of calligraphy has enabled him to connect to the unspoken secrets of life.









French artist Julien Breton, who has developed his own unique form of virtual calligraphy, based on a Latin-style alphabet and inspired by an Arabic and Eastern aesthetic. With a multi-cultural take on calligraphy, Breton’s work incorporates the cultural identity and style of East and West, often taking inspiration from western philosophy, hip hop and street art.



Nabeela Al Khayer, through her paintings she celebrates femininity. Al Khayer's use of warm colours and disjointed yet expressive portraits create a truly unique style.

From up and coming artists to some of the biggest names in contemporary art there really will be something for everyone, we hope you can attend!

AAF Hampstead will run from 1st - 4th November 2012, for more information or to book tickets please visit http://affordableartfair.com/hampstead/