Lahd Gallery, London’s gallery for contemporary Middle Eastern and North African art, hosts its latest exhibition exploring the social, political and religious issues facing Syria. The exhibition will run until March 7, 2012.

Image above: Khaled Akil / Untitled 15, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil: The Unmentioned is an exciting collection of the Syrian artist’s unique hybrid of photography and paint techniques.The final product is a digital image made up of layers of ancient religious Arabic scripts and symbols combined with photography depicting Akil’s take on the challenges in Middle Eastern society currently.

Akil –a self-taught artist who is exhibiting in the UK for the first time– uses social, political, sexual, and most prominently, religious issues as subject matter for his works.His perspectives are influenced by his passion for politics and human rights underlined by his academic studies.

Speaking of his works featuring in the exhibition, Akil said: “The Middle East suffers constantly from a state of conflict and perpetual war; our daily diet is based on tools of war, and the concept of war has become acceptable in our subconscious.People across the Middle East always stand ready for an upcoming war, and they digest constant tension and different ways of self-defence with their daily meals.”

image Khaled Akil / Untitled 7, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

image Khaled Akil / Untitled 8, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

image Khaled Akil / Untitled 10, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

image Khaled Akil / Untitled 9, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 11, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 13, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 14, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 5 (Set of 4), Mixed media and photography, 40 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 1, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 2, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil / Untitled 3, Mixed media and photography, 120 x 80 cm / Image Courtesy of the Lahd Gallery

Khaled Akil

Khaled Akil was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1986, and graduated from the School of Law and Political Science, Beirut University. He is a self taught artist and has had several solo exhibitions on Syria.

Lahd Gallery

Founded in 2005 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to create a focal point for women artists from the Gulf, Lahd Gallery soon became a well-known exhibition space on the contemporary art scene in the Middle East and has exhibited extensively throughout the Gulf and North African countries. In 2010, Lahd Gallery moved to its present location in London and has since become the foremost gallery promoting contemporary Middle Eastern art.


Comments
  • zhr
    Feb 18, 2012 - 14:15:16

    good job i like it.. thank you..

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