Opening Reception:  June 6th 2011, 6 - 9 pm

Exhibition Dates: 06/06/2011 - 15/07/2011


In his second solo exhibition at Green Art Gallery Dubai, Syrian photographer Jaber Al Azmeh will be presenting a series of new photographic duets, exploring the dual and complex relationship between human beings and time.

The photographic works which the artist views as portraits are however, mysteriously lacking in human content. Instead, their main subjects consist of empty rusting oil barrels, derelict buildings and walls, tires, abandoned cars; a junkyard utopia. Through substituting inanimate objects with the human being, Al Azmeh’s works in actuality investigate the intensely intimate stories of the people who passed through his ‘frame’. The viewer is presented with a scene similar to that of an incriminating investigation that has long been abandoned. With what feels like chalked -out silhouettes of missing people, all that is left of the human being are random clues leading up to his trace.

The atmosphere of his photographs though melancholy, are nonetheless aesthetically beautiful, with bursts of color and hyper stylized scenes. Through repeatedly locating and framing the beauty within junk, Al Azmeh virtually transforms his chosen pieces into an art installation.
Al Azmeh’s works also reflect a conscious awareness of the artists chosen medium, photography. The transition of the image into an eventual framed entity does after all come with the inevitable loss of possibilities. This is highlighted by the fact that his works are often presented as a frame within a frame. In this way the artist not only questions the critique of theoretical discourse as a means of interpreting art in general, but his position within that framework of discussion as well.

Born in 1973, Jaber Al Azmeh received his BFA in Visual Communications at Damascus University. In addition to being a professional photographer since 1998, he  is also a resident professor at the International University of science & Technology in Damascus since 2006. His most recent solo exhibition entitled “Metaphors” was shown at Green Art Gallery Dubai and Atassi Gallery Damascus in 2009 respectively.