‘Far From The Shore’ Exhibition

In her latest collection, Artist Leila Kubba reminds us that as much as we bid farewell to the shoreline of our beginnings, we will always return homeward if only to find that what we left behind now lies within. Using nautical symbols, images of the shoreline, migrating birds, cities of the future or the past, Kubba explores nomadism and exile as it exists in the current global condition. Drawing from experiences of her native Baghdad as well as the testimonies of currently displaced people, Kubba focuses on the long and arduous journey which awaits those who have experienced forced uprooting or whose homes have been transformed by the onslaught of war or political instability. Unlike the prodigal son or daughter whose homesickness eventually becomes a homecoming, many will never experience the rites of returning. Exploring new resolutions for this narrative arc, Kubba substitutes the movement within for the movement back. Finding freedom and restitution inherent in this move, she creates paintings which are assemblages of time, space and memory, made of atemporal layers of experience, foregoing linearity for the possibility of being in multiple places at the same time, of discovering subjective narratives which anchor being far from the shore, connecting home and sea.

Leila Kubba Kawash was born and educated in Baghdad; she graduated from the Manchester College of Art and Architecture in the U.K. and studied Art at the Corcoran College in Washington DC.
She has participated in several international exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Leighton House in London, Magna Gallery in Athens, Atrium of International Monetary Fund and Alif Gallery in Washington DC, at the Cultural centers of the UAE in Abu Dhabi, and in Amman, Jordan, as well as touring exhibitions across the United States.

Today she is the Founder of Art Space Hamra in Beirut, Lebanon, where she holds exhibitions for contemporary artists, as well as working creatively on her own paintings and giving art workshops.