Imaginative is the painter who can find some kind of beauty in a crane-pocked construction site, but that is what the South African painter Jane Lowmass has managed in Desert Gardens II, a sunny new exhibition at Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre's Manu Chhabria Arts Centre. The large, pastel work is simply called Building Site; beside two yellow cranes rise two skyscrapers, softly shaded in blues and purples with a lone green palm tree standing beneath them.
This single piece encapsulates a theme that runs throughout the exhibition - somewhat surprisingly, that of serenity. Here, the artist's paintings of Dubai portray the construction work, the industrial sites, the pylons and the multi-laned highways. In reality, there would be the screech of brakes, horns beeping and the clanking of cranes. But due to the variety of bright, multicoloured mediums, the work on display feels curiously calm.
There are 33 paintings in total, several by Lowmass, and others by a fellow South African artist, Thirza Kotzen. Both artists are now based in the UK, but they have been friends since they met as undergraduates while studying fine art in Johannesburg. For this exhibition, they have pulled together the works they created while visiting Dubai over the past few years.
Since it's called Desert Gardens II, it is not surprising to learn that the show is the follow-up exhibition from a 2006 display called Desert Gardens. Both have been curated by Chameleon Art, a Dubai organisation that seeks to unearth fresh new work from around the world for display here.
Kotzen, who also showed work in the original Desert Gardens exhibition, takes the lion's share of the space. Her canvasses are larger than those of Lowmass, painted alternately in oils and watercolours. She is a landscape artist whose work has been exhibited across the world and featured in instruction books on landscape painting. The works on display at Ductac, however, are the first in which she painted more arid, desert landscapes. The results are a mixture of images: wadis, the creek - "I have been inspired by the creek around which Old Dubai has grown with its bustle and beautiful reflective light," she says - markets and road scenes.
A series of three camel paintings in soft watercolour illuminate the juxtaposition of traditional versus modern found in today's Dubai. In one of the trio, six Bedouin sit astride their camels, sauntering solemnly past a backdrop of skyscrapers on the horizon.
In another pair of Kotzen's watercolours, Cityscape I and Cityscape II, the canvasses are elongated into long rectangles, the vistas are of rolling desert landscape punctuated by winding roads and industrial buildings. Splashes of green trees are dotted here and there. The light in both, a sort of luminescent pink, suggests evening. It's a dust-blown rosy colour that Kotzen says she uses in all her work here to create a sense of the exotic.
It is a trick that she uses to best effect in a study of the Burj al Arab. In four watercolour paintings, she depicts the Burj from the same angle at different times of day. Consequently, the surrounding light changes, as does the reflection in the glass of the Burj. From deep pinks, oranges and reds to more yellow tones, it is a masterful, modern-day take on Monet and his haystacks.
The few works included here by Lowmass are smaller and less compelling, but more detailed. Her paintings, she says, are about exaltation.
"The desert's glowing colours, sweeping rhythms and arid landscapes have been the setting for the impulse to express that mood," she says. In the wryly entitled Desert Thorn, she places a single desert tree in front of a mountainous sand dune. In a watercolour entitled Descent to Hatta, another lone tree stands against a backdrop of rocky hillside. Unlike several of Kotzen's pieces, there is a total absence of human life; in its place is a sense of space and isolation.
Combined with the more city-focused images by Kotzen, they make a medicinal exhibition that comes recommended for a fresh and peaceful perspective on busy Dubai life.
Desert Gardens II runs at DUCTAC, Mall of the Emirates until June 18. (www.ductac.org)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
THREE
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Nayla%20Al%20Khaja%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Jefferson%20Hall%2C%20Faten%20Ahmed%2C%20Noura%20Alabed%2C%20Saud%20Alzarooni%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company profile
Name: Steppi
Founders: Joe Franklin and Milos Savic
Launched: February 2020
Size: 10,000 users by the end of July and a goal of 200,000 users by the end of the year
Employees: Five
Based: Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai
Financing stage: Two seed rounds – the first sourced from angel investors and the founders' personal savings
Second round raised Dh720,000 from silent investors in June this year
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nicola%20Coughlan%2C%20Luke%20Newton%2C%20Jonathan%20Bailey%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
