The Leaf Remains

A Solo Exhibition by Fatima Abdal

opening day: May 14, 2024 | 5 to 8 pm

The Sultan Gallery is pleased to announce ‘The Leaf Remains,’ a solo exhibition by Kuwaiti artist Fatima Abdal.

In this exhibition, Fatima fuses an imaginative application of growth with a keen understanding of botany to reproduce plants of her own. Nature bends to the willingness of creation and Fatima’s process with clay is no different. A conversation with clay is initiated from the beginning and the dialogue continues back and forth between artist and art; each guiding the other to materialize the unseen.

Each piece is riddled with unpredictability, which is all too familiar and necessary to the erratic (and often hostile) nature of our world. Perfection is not attained but redefined as is in the sight of the bruised seed pod in the soil still committed to flower. Creations that never halted in creation; the vine reaching further despite its tattered roots.

Fatima’s work dissects the phenomena of the natural-made to the human-made. The synthetic mimicking the authentic to query the validity of either’s existence. The work presented also characterizes nature’s plea to be seated at the table amongst us. To be heard and healed by offering the role of ornamentation to us and to serve as a decorative reminder; that we, as people, cannot grow higher when standing on trampled flowers.

In a meditative process of building these vessels through repetition, coil on coil and layer upon layer of clay, the being of the artist is left imbued on the final form.

“The changing body is always the same.”

-Lucy Lippard

Timing: 10am - 3pm (closed on Fridays, Saturdays, and public holidays)

***Please note that we have moved to the new space (100 meters before the old space). Sultan Gallery, Phase 2, Block 8, Street 105, Building 168 (Mezzanine) South Subhan***