Exhibition at the Ayyam Gallery, 22 March - 10 May 2021 | Dubai (Alserkal Avenue) Solo Exhibition Abyss Features Thaier Helal’s Most Recent Work

Taking his creative observation further, Thaier continues to pose questions. He addresses many subjects concerning our existence, meaning, and current state of bitterness that drains the mind and soul.

While furthering his previous body of work in ideology, Thaier’s new work differs in texture, stepping away from his structural and sculptural approach, as the artist expresses himself through flatness. While developing a trial and error process, focusing on layers of light and darkness, Helal threads a thin line between figurative and abstract. He succeeds in doing so through non-conformist perspectives as the artist’s technique plays with composition and vantage point. The artist’s connection manifests itself through subdued earthy and cool tones placed deep within the darkness, symbols of the unknown.

Thaier Helal, Ephemeral, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 165 x 165 cm / Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery and the artist

The process of trial and error creates a series of similar yet unique works. The viewer sees through the strokes and gestures and makes meaning out of form or lack thereof. The process gives Helal the opportunity for inner-discussion, with ongoing interaction between the work and the artist. That offers the artist moments of appreciation. The aim is for each viewer to see something personal that references past experiences, to take the viewer to the extremes of imagination. This technique amounts to artworks of hope and pain that hone on uncertainty. Are we heading in a specific direction? Will we find meaning to any of it?

The repetition in Thaier’s gestural abstraction allows him to answer questions in several ways, giving multiple ambiguous answers to open-ended issues. The artist is looking for solutions amidst the darkness, tokens of meaning and truth submerged in light and colour across the canvases. The light is what remains untouched, resulting in an opportunity for colour. Therefore, as the artist renders darkness, a saturation of pigment becomes layers of missteps. In the series of small works on paper, the artist envisions suffering.

Thaier Helal, Hidden, 2020. Acrylic on canvas, 157 x 157 cm / Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery and the artist

Thaier Helal, Perspective I, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 165 x 165 cm / Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery and the artist

Thaier Helal

Thaier Helal’s constant search for experimental forms has led him to include diverse media, arriving at approaches that often blur the lines between painting and assemblage. With an innovative painting style that has progressed for two decades, Helal is at the forefront of contemporary abstraction in the Middle East.

Born in 1967, Helal launched his career in his native Syria, where he studied with seminal painters at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus. After relocating to the United Arab Emirates in the 1990s, he developed a distinct painting method. It incorporates unconventional materials such as glue, sand, and coal, attempting to recreate the physical and sensory aspects of the world around him.

Helal begins each composition with a sketched grid that serves as a compositional base then applies several layers of mixed media, providing a sense of organisation to an otherwise abstract painting. This laboured formalism represents the artist’s conceptual rendering of the intrinsic code of nature. It extends to investigations of spatial dynamics as shaped by the fluctuation of society and culture. Helal communicates movement and energy through expressionist explosions of colour and automatic brushwork, alluding to organic formations.

Thaier Helal, Bottom Line, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 165 x 165 cm / Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery and the artist

Thaier Helal, Sky Line, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 165 x 165 cm / Courtesy of the Ayyam Gallery and the artist

In the years following the outbreak of the Syrian conflict, Helal explored various printmaking techniques. He tried to isolate the mechanisms of war and represent the growing militarisation of a global society. Recent works by the artist that use found objects, such as plastic beads and miniature toys, allude to the adverse effects of globalisation, the advent of consumerist culture, and the power struggles that have triggered these phenomena.

As a longtime resident of the Gulf, Helal has contributed to the regional art scene with an extensive exhibition history that includes solo exhibitions at such venues as the Sharjah Art Museum (2000), in addition to awards from Tehran’s Contemporary Painting Biennial (2005) and the Sharjah Biennial (1997). Helal has also influenced the development of local painting as a Senior Member of the Sharjah Arts Institute and as a Professor at the Fine Arts College at the University of Sharjah, where he has encouraged emerging artists.

Recent solo and group exhibitions for the artist include Ayyam Gallery 11 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (2018, 2017); Ayyam Gallery Beirut (2015), Ayyam Gallery London (2015); Ayyam Gallery DIFC (2014); Samsung Blue Square, Seoul (2014); and Busan Museum of Art (2014). Helal’s works are housed in private and public collections throughout the Arab World, including the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Collection, U.A.E.

Ayyam Gallery in 2014 published a monograph on the artist.

Exhibitions Dates: 22 March - 10 May 2021