EXHIBITION AT AB GALLERY (OCT 5 - NOV 5, 2014) Gabriela von Habsburg & Lulwah Al Homoud

Gabriela von Habsburg is a sculptor that believes in the equal partnership between architecture and sculpture. As a former student of Professor Robert Jacobson at the Munich Academy of Arts she belongs, like her teacher, to the constructivist-geometrical tradition – a movement from the beginning of modernism, which practised the reduction of means to geometrical elements and mostly primary colours. The artist is known for her big sculptures in public spaces. At the exhibition mainly small and medium size sculptures will be presented; but their presence and impact in the 'small' interior are just as intense as the sculptures in the public space.

"Just as in music the pause intensifies the expression. Sculpture also makes its impact through deliberately-created empty spaces. A sculpture is an engagement with space." (Gabriela von Habsburg)

Gabriela von Habsburg / Kvariati 2014, Stainless steel, 60 x 30 cm / Courtesy of AB Gallery

Gabriela von Habsburg / Gonio, 2014, Stainless steel, 25 x 39 cm / Courtesy of AB Gallery

Lulwah Al Homoud’s style relies on combining and creating a net of forms, lines, Arabic letters, rich colors, and sensory material using bright esthetics. To this end, she uses mixed media and geometric shapes as tools to accentuate her purpose. One can notice in her work an obvious bias to linear and spatial geometry, something that owes itself to the fact that she views it as a fertile source from which to renew her abstract visual vocabulary, and to turn it into a net of complex structures hinting to immortality and providing a feeling of stable equilibrium. She uses mathematics to activate the language of audiovisual communication and to deconstruct Islamic ornament into new, stimulating, and visually exciting patterns. Insofar as Arabic letters are concerned, she takes the liberty of deconstructing them, deriving their symbolic dimensions, and then using these symbols into simple lines that serve as raw material for new designs.

"My work is abstract and spiritual. It belies universal philosophies and visions that surpass time and place. The letter and the simple geometric shape have deep meanings that express faith as well as the relationship between creature and Creator" (Lulwah Al Homoud)

Lulwah Al Homoud / Growing Cubes 4, 2014, Mixed Media on Archival paper, 122 x 152 cm / Courtesy of AB Gallery

Lulwah Al Homoud / Cube in Cube, 2013, Silkscreen on Archival paper, 122 x 132 cm, Ed. 2/3 / Courtesy of AB Gallery

Short Biographies

Gabriela von Habsburg studied philosophy at the University of Munich and took a second degree in sculpting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She received art awards for her sculptures already at an early stage, such as an award from the Masaryk Academy of Fine Arts Prague and the European Union.

Habsburg has been teaching as a professor at the Art Academy Tbilisi, Georgia, since 2001. In 2007 at the occasion of the inauguration of her sculpture 'Rose Revolution Monument', she was awarded the Georgian citizenship by President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Gabriela von Habsburg's sculptures were included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, USA and Asia, including the Kamitori Gallery, Kumamoto, Japan, the artists' house Lenbachplatz Munich, the Biennale del Ferro in Gubbio, Italy, the Akhmatova Museum in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Modern Art in La Valetta, Malta, the Kunsthalle Sopron, Hungary, the Academy of Fine Arts, Moscow, the Museum of Modern Art in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Art Museum Yerevan, Armenia, and the Art Museum Aalborg, Denmark and the Art Museum Stawanger, Norway.

Her sculptures are owned by major museums, corporations and cities (1985 until today), including the Franke Holding AG, Aarburg, Switzerland, city of Astana, Kazakhstan, Art Museum Sophia, Bulgaria, Franke GmbH Hard, Austria, city Tbilisi, Georgia, Hildon Water, Brighton, city of Bethlehem, Palestine, Museum of Skopje, Macedonia, Museum Würth, Künzelsau, Germany, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary, Akhmatova Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, Voest Alpine MCE, Linz Austria, Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria and much more.

Lulwah Al Homoud studied sociology at King Saud University and was the first Saudi to complete a MA at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London. She learned calligraphy from renowned Pakistani Master Calligrapher Rashid Butt and was inspired by Ahmed Moustafa to learn the theoretical system of calligraphy.

In 2006 she participated in a British Museum managed project to have Arab artists work in schools. She spent six weeks at a school in London exploring calligraphy and Arab design. She has participated in and co-curated several international exhibitions, among them the 2008 Edge of Arabia exhibition in SOAS Brunei Gallery.

The artist lives and works in UK.

The exhibition will open on October 5 and will run until November 5, 2014 at AB GALLERY, Luzern/Switzerland.