Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) inaugurated the ‘Metamorphosis’ exhibition by Lebanese artist Simar Halwany, scheduled to run from 13 June – 8 July 2022 at Al Safa Art and Design Library. During the exhibition, Simar, who is being hosted as part of the ‘Artist in Residence’ programme, will take the audience through her paintings on a journey to the depths of the sea to explore the existential relationship between humans and water as an element.

The opening ceremony was attended by Dr Saeed Mubarak bin Kharbash, CEO of the Arts and Literature Sector at Dubai Culture, who confirmed that organising the ‘Metamorphosis’ exhibition at Al Safa Art and Design Library comes in response to Dubai Culture’s aspirations to enhance creativity, support talents in Dubai, and provide exemplary platforms for the public to communicate with arts and artists from all over the world. The exhibition is in line with the Authority’s vision to cement Dubai’s position as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent.

It is a culmination of the efforts of the artist Simar Halwanyas part of the ‘Artist in Residence’ programme that was hosted by Dubai Culture last year at Al Safa Art and Design Library. Simar was the first artist in residence hosted by the library. This is within the framework of the Authority’s efforts to establish an incubating environment that ensures the care and empowerment of the creative artistic talents in Dubai and development of its promising creative sector, in order to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy in making Dubai the global capital of the creative economy.

Dubai Culture invites visual art enthusiasts to visit the ‘Metamorphosis’ exhibition to explore distinctive paintings and enjoy live-painting performances by the artist. The exhibition includes 15 paintings drawn from the Emirati culture, dealing with the human relationship with the sea, focusing on fish in Dubai.

The displayed paintings reflect the existential relationship between humans and water, which Halwany describes as “a conflict due to the duality of exchange between the sea and man; as humans see water and fish as a source of life, expansion and sustenance as well as a source of conflict, death, ambiguity, and migration.”

Halwany is an artist specialising in the field of drawing and engraving. She holds a master’s degree in illustration from Italy and works as a freelance illustrator for children’s books with many well-known authors in Lebanon and the Middle East. She won the Best Book Award from the Arab Thought Foundation 21 for her book ‘The Elephant Painter’ (the book is only available in Arabic) in 2017.