Ibrahim Nubani

Ibrahim Nubani was born in Akka in 1961 and grew up in Maker in the Galilee. He received his first painting lessons from the Palestinian artist Walid Qashash and later with Abed al Abidi. In 1984 Nubani graduated from Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv where his work received great acclaim at local and international exhibitions. At the young age of 25 Nubani participated in the Venice Biennial.

He is a prolific painter and has since exhibited at several Palestinian art centers as well as regional and international museums including his most recent solo exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum in 2004. In the early 1990s Nubani moved back to Maker where he currently lives and works. Al Hoash Gallery selections of recent works represent two distinctive styles that attest to his mastery of the relationship between composition and color. The flat geometric abstractions with their formal composition and use of colors (yellow, red, blue, and black) indicate the influence of the Russian artist from early 1900s Kazimir Malevich and the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. However, in these paintings Nubani does not follow a rigid grid-like format, characteristic of his earlier work; his geometric shapes while seemingly disciplined are suspended on the canvas as if yearning for independence. While also attributing his inspiration to Islamic art of geometric patterns, Nubani emphasizes that he liberated the traditional geometric form from its formal constraints in Islamic art.

Organic Abstraction

The rest of the works show a move towards a more organic abstraction. These paintings full of energy and broad bright color strokes are not restricted to primary colors; the shapes are more organic, inspired by nature and imbued with symbolism that reflect on the human condition. Nubani states that he does not belong to one school but admits to being inspired by several artists in this period, among them Juan Miro and Jackson Pollock.

Nubani’s transformation of the canvas from the controlled and structured grid, to a less defined floating geometric forms, towards liberated organic almost chaotic anthropomorphic shapes reflect his personal life experiences as a Palestinian. From an idealistic period after graduating from Bezalel which according to Nubani was a stage in life when he hoped to gain equal recognition as well as respect for his rights as a Palestinian, to a period of disillusionment with Israeli art establishment in the wake of the first Intifada, was a turning point in Nubani’s work. For Nubani his right to live in a free society contradicts the Zionist exclusionist apartheid ideology where the human rights of Palestinians are denied.

His paintings are forever linked to his life as a refugee in his own country and the emotional state resulting from the current despondent situation of the Palestinians. The latter is clearly reflected in his monumental work the Sun. Here the geometric patterns are reduced in size, his signature symbol the sun-eye-flower in the center of the painting is dismembered; in contrast to his other bold and passionate color scheme, the painting’s background is rendered in dark colors with the bright blue sky receding towards the edge of the painting. Petroglyphic signs and anthropomorphic figures are spread all over the canvas, almost bursting out at the edges. In all his works Nubani’s skillfully portrays his inner turmoil as an artist whose work is distinctly linked to the Palestinian condition.

Exhibition Curator: Salwa Mikdadi

Assistant Curator:Rula Khoury