Contemporary Art Platform Presents.....

Sami Mohammad: A Retrospective 

Opening reception: Saturday,14/3/2015 - (6:00pm – 9:00pm)Exhibition dates: 15/3/2015 – 14/6/2015 - Contemporary Art Platform / Exhibition SpaceCurated by: Abed Al Kadiri

Contemporary Art Platform is proud to present Sami Mohammad: A Retrospective, the first in-depth survey of over fifty years of work by the pioneering Kuwaiti sculptor. More than 120 pieces––many of which have never been exhibited before––including sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints and documents from the artist’s archive make up the largest ever presentation of his work. Mohammad’s first and only solo sculptural exhibition was mounted in Kuwait in 1995. 20 years later, this retrospective, held in the country of the artist’s birth, pays homage to his long and influential artistic journey.

Born in 1943 in Sharq, one of the oldest quarters of Kuwait City, Sami Mohammad studied at The College of Fine Arts in Cairo from 1966 to 1970 and trained as a sculptor from 1973 to 1975 at the Johnson Atelier in New Jersey, USA. He was a founding member of both the Free Atelier in 1960 and of the Kuwait Society for Formative Arts in 1967. 

This chronological exhibition highlights the entire thematic arch by the foremost sculptor in the Gulf. The sculptures on view come primarily from Mohammad's own collection, consisting of his favorite pieces. This includes many works exhibited for the first time, beginning with his earliest ceramic pieces made in 1961 and sculptures made during his studies in Egypt. At this time, his focus was almost exclusively on the female body, such as The Water Carrier (1966), and the key piece The Hunger (1970), a phenomenal example of the prominence of the human condition in his work. 

Mohammad's major wooden sculptures, including the triptych Before Birth, Birth and After Birth, (1977) from the collections of the Kuwait National Council and the Museum of Modern Art in Kuwait, as well as the widely acclaimed artworks Penetration, An Attempt to Get Out and Sabra and Shatila made during his most prolific period in the 1980s, are also on view. These stunning sculptural pieces intimately contemplate the human form and embody the physical, emotional and psychological impact of conflict. Bodies break down walls. Faces are bound, hollow, and disturbed. The succinct brutality of form reaches far into the depths of human suffering. 

While the figures here are robust and meticulously sculpted, the later One Captive and Two Martyrs marks a shift, where bodies are reduced to fragile shreds. His latest series Stop confronts the barrage of suicide car bombs that became common terrorist events in the Arab world after 2000. The human body resonates throughout Mohammed’s entire oeuvre as the most substantial means for the representation of hardship and perseverance. His work reflects his belief that the human being always maintains the power to overcome oppression. If one strives for freedom, it is possible to be free. 

Sami Mohammed has represented Kuwait internationally from the 1960s onwards, with exhibitions in Damascus, Cairo, Rabat, Riyadh, Tokyo, New Delhi, Athens, Cannes, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Frankfurt. In 1984 he was awarded the first prize at the first International Cairo Biennale. In 2010, he received the Arab Thought Foundation’s ‘Artistic Creativity Award’ for his exceptional mastery of the bronze medium. Most recently, he represented Kuwait in its first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013. 

  Upcoming Event  

Artist Talk: Wafa Hourani
Date: Wednesday, 18/2/2015Time: 6:00pm
On the occasion of his visit to Kuwait to install CAP's latest acquisition Qalandia – 2076, the Palestinian artist Wafa Hourani will give a talk about the concept and development of this major installation from 2008. 

Wafa Hourani, based in Ramallah, Palestine, combines photography and sculpture in Future Cities to address the social, political and economic realities of Palestinian life, developing grim and apocalyptic predictions for the residents of the West Bank. Qalandia – 2076 takes its name from the main checkpoint crossing through the West Bank Security Barrier which divides the cities of Ramallah and Ar Ram; a site of political unrest and human rights concerns. Dating his piece 2067 – one hundred years after the Arab-Israeli Six Day War – Hourani has constructed five scale models envisioning the future of a refugee camp, which seems to have regressed with time, rather than evolved. Basing each segment on an actual site – the airport, border crossing, and 3 settlements – the buildings are rendered as war-ravaged and crumbling, crowned by implausibly archaic remnants of TV antennae. Each building is a miniature light-box illuminating glimpses into the private lives of the residents. The film strips, placed in the windows, are an unnerving reminder that this science fiction horror is, for many, an everyday experience.

  Current Exhibitions  

Al-Seef Works from the Collection of Barjeel Art Foundation 

Exhibition dates: Continues until 31/3/2015 - Contemporary Art Platform / Exhibition Space 

Curated by: Suheyla Takesh

This exhibition offers a window into several distinct episodes of history, where proximity to water has either shaped or played a significant role in the development of a place. Similar to shining a spotlight on select and specific areas of a stage, this exhibition highlights several individual moments of history, outlined below, which took place and unfolded in coastal regions and in the presence of eminent waters. To read more click here

The Replacement
Mahmoud Obaidi

Exhibition dates: Continues until 11/2/2015 - Contemporary Art Platform / The Art Room

“The Replacement” explores the subject of political propaganda through different modes of communication and imagery. The exhibition presents over thirty works that span a range of media including paintings, sculpture, silkscreen prints and video art. To read more click here

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