A new body of alluring expressionist works by self-taught Dubai-based artist Rowaida Hakim, known for her signature incorporation of 24-carat gold leaf, will be the subject of a special exhibition in January to ring in the New Year.
Over the last year, Hakim has staged numerous exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates and abroad showcasing work that depicts a special kinship with the natural world, the desert landscape of the United Arab Emirates, and urban structures of cityscapes such as that of her hometown of Dubai – a city that illuminates the night sky with its numerous skyscrapers of varying shapes and sizes.
In each of her works Hakim incorporates a rich use of 24-carat gold leaf – sometimes found through gold strips and at others through elegant dots that add life and expression to her abstract canvases.
For New Spirit, the name of her forthcoming body of work, Hakim goes a step further with her use of embellishment and incorporates alongside her regular use of 24-carat gold leaf, small diamonds and semi-precious stones.
“These new works incorporate nature, luxury and the spirit of love,” says the artist.
While Hakim normally incorporates a variety of metals into her work, including silver and copper, for these new works she has limited herself to using 23-carat and 24-carat gold leaf.
“It’s first time I use real diamonds stones and semi-precious stones in my work,” she says. “I can’t wait to show my new art to the world.”
One work, called Love Situation evokes a style similar to Hakim’s popular work Dubai Nights. Similarly, she incorporates large, expressionistic washes of black paint coupled with glistening strips of gold leaf. If you look closely enough, one will just be able to make out the words “love” and “breath” in Arabic script.
Hakim has gradually begun to incorporate hidden messages within her works so that the viewer must pause and investigate more as they behold her dazzling canvases. In another work, inspired by the trees in her garden outside of her villa in Dubai, she also fuses gold leaf and acrylic paint.
“I am inspired by the movement of my brush as well as the movement of the gold as they simultaneously move onto my canvases,” she explains. “The act of painting for me is simultaneous to the feeling of moving from us to others and from others to us. It’s the act of giving and the act of love.”
Other works incorporate a chart of heartbeats to allude to feelings of love and compassion.
These are some of the works that will start 2020 with the right air of positive change and renewal. Also in New Spirit is the series Silent Messages, these are paintings that go beyond a simple written message. Through Hakim’s powerful brushstrokes and scintillating use of gold leaf we feel pulsating energy – an energy that she hopes will offer new hope, love and spirit the year to come and for forever more.
Hakim is the owner of several real estate companies in Dubai as well as well a Rowaida Interiors, a high-end design company based in Dubai and specialised in luxury interiors. For years she’s been selling her paintings directly to her interior design clients. Earlier this year she staged multiple exhibitions including a unique viewing of her work at Sotheby’s Dubai marking the first time she showed her paintings to a public audience.
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