DUBAI.- Lawrie Shabibi presents Embryonic Coat, the third solo by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim at the gallery. Ibrahims intensely experimental and prolific art practice conveys his deep fascination with memory, imagery and ways of seeing and experiencing the environment, coming from both his personal experiences and the kind of innate memory found in our DNA, which he describes as a primitive urge. Embryonic Coat explores the conception or manifestation of the known, experienced, or imagined as contained within rudimentary forms, referencing the protective sheath around a seed or the membrane around an embryo. The exhibition presents My Garden's Details, a new series of paintings that fixate on motifs of flowers and trees - endlessly repeated, reconfigured and recoloured, much as the abstract notations and marks recurring throughout his practice. Showing alongside these are some of his most dynamic semi-figurative sculptures to date in his signature medium of papier-maché.
Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim (b. 1962, UAE) is part of the UAE's first generation of contemporary artists from the late 1980s, an avant-garde scene that includes Abdullah Al Saadi, Hussein Sharif, Mohammed Kazem, and the late Hassan Sharif.
Ibrahim is currently representing the United Arab Emirates at the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale, in an exhibition entitled Between Sunrise and Sunset, curated by Maya Allison (Executive Director of The New York University Abu Dhabi Art Gallery) for the National Pavilion UAE.
In March 2018 the Sharjah Art Foundation opened Elements, a survey of works spanning three decades of his practice, curated by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi. Other solo exhibitions include Dusk Till Dawn (2011) at Lawrie Shabibi. Cromwell Place London, Memory Drum (2020) and The Space between the Eyelid and the Eyeball (2019) at Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, and a series of solo shows at Cuadro Gallery, Dubai (2018, 2016, 2015, 2013).
Significant group exhibitions include participations in But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community, 1988-2008 at The NYUAD Art Gallery (2017); The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Yay Gallery, Baku (2015); the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi (2016); the 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice (2009); the Sharjah Biennial (1993, 2003 and 2007); and the Dhaka Biennial (2002 and 1993). Institutional exhibitions include the Kunstmuseum, Bonn (2005); the Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah (2005 and 1996), the Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen (2002); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (1998); Sittard Art Centre, the Netherlands (1995), and the Exhibition for the Emirates Fine Art Society in the Soviet Union, Moscow (1990).
Ibrahims public works include: Falling Stones Garden (2020), Al Ula, Saudi Arabia, commissioned by the Royal Commission for Al Ula and Desert X; Grocery (2019), Madinat Zayed Market, Abu Dhabi, UAE, commissioned by Ghadan 21, Government of Abu Dhabi as part of the For Abu Dhabi initiative; Untitled (2019), Reem Central Park, Al Reem Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE, commissioned by Aldar Properties PJSC in partnership with Abu Dhabi Art; Kids' Garden (2019), Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE, commissioned by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company; and Bait Al Hurma (2018), Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation as part of the exhibition Elements.
He received the first prize for sculpture at the Sharjah Biennial in 1999 and 2001 and has been a member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society since 1986, founding Art Atelier at the Khor Fakkan Art Centre in 1997. He has participated in artist residencies at Trans Indian Ocean Artist Exchange, Kochi Murzi Biennale, India (2016); A.i.R Dubai (2015); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2009) and Kunstcentrum Sittard, the Netherlands (1994-1996, 1998-2000).
His works have been acquired by significant international collections, including Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah; Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah; Art Jameel Collection, Dubai; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Kunstcentrum Sittard, Sittard; The British Museum, London; and Le Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
He lives and works in Khorfakkan, United Arab Emirates.