Nadim Karam and Safwan Dahoul Fifth Anniversary Exhibition at Ayyam

Ayyam Gallery Beirut is pleased to announce its fifth anniversary show featuring recent works by Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Nadim Karam and Syrian painter Safwan Dahoul. The exhibition’s opening on October 30 will serve as a celebration of the space’s five years of operation.

Since its launch in 2009, Ayyam Gallery Beirut has become a staple of the local art scene and a hub for new talent. Today, the Marina district outpost is widely recognized for charting the regional development of contemporary art through bimonthly exhibitions and concurrent programs that spotlight a selection of the Middle East’s foremost painters, sculptors, and photographers. Karam and Dahoul will be brought together as a nod to the gallery’s inaugural event, which highlighted the acclaimed artists through a joint exhibition.

Nadim Karam will debut a series of new steel works exploring his ongoing Hap-situs (Happening + Situation) concept, an interventionist project that utilizes whimsical urban sculptures, what the artist refers to as ‘toys,’ to punctuate the existing social stagnation of cities seized by political precarity or rigid structures.

Safwan Dahoul will be represented with new installments to his continuing Dream series, a body of work that he has produced over the course of nearly two decades. With the outbreak of the war in Syria, the painter has addressed the human toll of the conflict through the symbolism of his psychologically-laden compositions. In Dahoul’s latest monochrome works, the compact interiors that surround his recognizable heroine have contracted further, as the confines of her shelter appear to be closing in on her form; she is coiled, overpowered, or cornered by the physical dimensions of her setting, and is without a refuge or exit.

In conjunction with the opening of the fifth anniversary show, Ayyam Projects, a sister space located next to Ayyam Beirut, will be launched. This new gallery will offer a special focus on experimental practices by highlighting cutting-edge photography, conceptual art, installation, video, and new media.