Exhibition at XVA Gallery (17th March - 15th April 2021) Silent Confabulations, a Solo Exhibition by Huma Shoaib

This collection of works transcends through the journey from chaos to harmony, where the grids and geometry create lines that transform into perfect patterns and motifs. Rather than hide them, Huma chooses to keep the mistakes she made during her drawing process, symbolizing the imperfections in us and our notion towards our inherent quest for perfection. Inspired by mysticism and Mevlana Rumi’s poetry, these works are visual narratives of Sufism.

Traditional, religious, and geometric patterns inculcate the utopian harmony as the bees follow a circular motion resembling the whirling dervish, as well as the pilgrims in Mecca. The circular compositions, rising from the Sama performances, where movements follow harmony from celestial bodies to living beings. The changing details in these birds and bees signify the process of unlearning and relearning, the Sufic idea of losing one’s self to find the truth. Fluorescent colours give otherwise traditional patterns a ‘contemporary’ edge.

Huma creates patterns from sacred geometry and combines them with drawings of bees and birds to connect geometry with life. Simultaneously she touches the very concept of imperfections in us and our quest and desire for perfection. She uses paper cut drawings and silhouettes layered together along with detailed graphite drawings giving three-dimensionality to otherwise flat imagery, hence giving it depth and multitude of meaning.

Huma is a graduate of Fine Arts from The National College of Arts Lahore, Pakistan. She has regularly shown her works at Tashkeel’s annual shows, XVA, and other galleries in Dubai.

Huma Shoaib, Silent Confabulations / Courtesy of XVA Gallery and the artist

Huma Shoaib, Silent Confabulations / Courtesy of XVA Gallery and the artist

Huma Shoaib, Silent Confabulations / Courtesy of XVA Gallery and the artist

The exhibition opens on 17th March and will run until 15th April 2021 at the XVA Gallery in Dubai.

Established in 2003, XVA Gallery is one of the leading galleries in the Middle East specialized in contemporary art from the Arab world and the Sub-continent. Exhibitions focus on works by the region’s foremost artists as well as those emerging onto the scene. The gallery’s artists express their different cultural identities and perspectives while challenging the viewer to drop prejudices and borders.

XVA Gallery exhibits both locally and internationally, collaborating with galleries and participating in international art fairs, such as Art London, SH Contemporary and Art Basel Hong Kong, to further expose Middle Eastern contemporary art. Located in Dubai’s heritage district, now called Al Fahidi Neighborhood, XVA Gallery also founded and organized the Bastakiya Art Fair (2007-2010).