Exhibitions

Lebanese painter Tagreed Darghouth.Concerned with the socio-political issues in her native Lebanon and beyond, Darghouth takes a research-driven approach to her works, primarily in acrylic on canvas, that tackle such topics as cosmetic surgery, domestic workers, life and death, war, destruction, identity, and displacement.

The artist draws inspiration from literature, philosophy, and the everyday realities of the Middle East as well as European masters like Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh to produce paintings that are not only uncomfortable, confronting, and challenging in their subject matter but also technically brilliant. Strange Fruit will be the first ever solo exhibition of works by Darghouth in Dubai. The series on display sees a juxtaposition between pastoral landscapes populated with Palestine’s ubiquitous olive trees and images depicting the destruction and violence resulting from the occupation. Allegedly, approximately 800,000 olive trees in occupied Palestine have been uprooted since 1967. Darghouth’s paintings, which refer to this destruction of the Palestinian olive groves, are imbued with the sentiments of Van Gogh on the significance of the olive tree as a ‘symbol for human life and its cycle’. Van Gogh believed that human interaction with nature, particularly during the olive harvesting season, formed a connection to the Divine. Darghouth also takes inspiration from these closing words by poet Mahmoud Darwish in The Second Olive Tree:But one of her grandsonsWho witnessed the execution threw a stoneAt a soldier, and was martyred with her.After the victorious soldiersHad gone on their way, we buried him there in that deepPit-the grandmother cradle. And that’s why we wereSure, that he would become, in a little while an olive.“This exhibition is another attempt to throw a stone.” -Tagreed DarghouthOn the power of art as social commentary Tagreed Darghouth says:“I think painting’s visual nature makes it an extremely powerful medium and mode of communication. A painting can cause much impact – all it requires is a mere glance from the observer.In my opinion it’s an artist’s duty to use this mighty language to shed light on matters that concern him or her and their surroundings.On the exhibition Tabari Artspace founder Maliha Tabari Says:“It seemed more than fitting that we dedicate March, which is the busiest month in Dubai’s art calendar and also Women’s Month to a powerful female force in the Middle Eastern art scene such as Tagreed Darghouth.Aside from her talent as a painter which is obvious, Darghouth deals with subject matter that many artists shy away from, yet her work provides an important insight into the social issues of the now.”