Qatar Museums (QM) has opened an exhibition by Qatari contemporary artist Ebtisam al-Saffar at the Doha Fire Station Artist in Residence space.
Open from 10am to 10pm until May 22 in the Annex Building (above Cafe #999), the exhibition celebrates the accomplishments of al-Saffar during her three-month Qatari Art Residency Programme in Paris.
Al-Saffar was the first artist to take part in the unique exchange programme, organised under the patronage of QM chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Hosted at the Qatar Studio at the renowned Cité internationale des Arts, Paris, France, the programme enabled the artist to have a studio space in one of the biggest and most important art residencies in the world and interact with other artists from around the world.
To open the exhibition, al-Saffar spoke to a large audience in the Fire Station’s cinema yesterday evening to discuss her journey, experiences and the works that she produced during her time in Paris, which are now on show in Doha.
Al-Saffar‘s works in her exhibition focus on visual expressions of human faces and the expressive energy that they produce.
The artist has called her collection of paintings produced during her residency in Paris ‘What is Left in the Faces’, as she believes that what remains in a facial expression after every experience that a human encounters does not end, but is instead transmitted from one generation to the next.
Khalifa al-Obaidli, director of the Fire Station, said: “Al-Saffar is a hugely talented artist, and her works will not only inspire the local community, but also inspire our own artists in residence, and help to create an indigenous culture of creativity and innovation in Qatar. We will continue to provide more opportunities for Qatari artists to visit Paris to encounter different cultures and to connect to the everyday life of local citizens.”
Al-Saffar was born in Doha in 1971, and graduated from the Faculty of Art Education in 1995. A member of the Qatar Arts Association, al-Saffar has participated in many art exhibitions all over the world including in France, Dhaka, Japan, Tunis, Rabat, Oman, and Qatar. Most recently, she held an exhibition in Tunisia at the Mediterranean Symposium of Contemporary Art.
The Qatari Art Residency Programme is a recurring three-month residency open to all Qatari artists, and provides one artist at a time a studio accommodation space and the chance to experience an art residency in Paris, visit museums, galleries and be immersed in the art scene in the city.