Thought to Image: Alia Ahmad

2 May - 12 June 2024

Following a comprehensive refurbishment by the minimalist architect, John Pawson, Albion Jeune, is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new large-scale paintings by Saudi Arabian painter Alia Ahmad (b. 1996, Riyadh).
Curated by Sacha Craddock, the exhibition, titled Thought to Image, brings together a group of vibrant paintings that draw on the lush characteristics of Riyadh’s industrialised desert, the colours of Al Sadu textiles woven by nomadic Bedouin tribes, and the calligraphic lyricism of the oldest form of the Arabic script, khatt (خط). As the artist stated, “Although done in a group, each of the recent paintings feels different as it follows its own logic”. The exhibition will be Ahmad’s first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.
Ahmad’s recent paintings use a fresh yet familiar language. Each of the independent paintings in ‘Thought to Image’ present an iconic state, to betray an artist already extending association in terms of the representation of gender and identity. Arriving out of an understanding of traditional Saudi craft, culture, calligraphy and photography, as well as a relationship to Western art history, Ahmad is particularly dexterous in the way she utilises and responds to the structure and point that builds within a painting itself.
Whilst Ahmad’s considerably scaled work carries approaches to the construction of landscape, a sense of movement across and through, the recent more singular images result in a perhaps more symbolic relation to space. With imagery more autonomous than ever, the paintings betray an artist working to discover, and counter what she has already set in motion. This in turn mimics the construction of the image itself. Ahmad’s, generally one to one scaled constructions, meet a different, more iconic, sense of purpose.
A singular tree, for instance, provides symbolic context. Unconscious hints at the graphic nature of graffiti provide a crossroad rather that a path to be passed along and through. A restricted, tonal, range of colour, in turn creates a place or identity perhaps now more symbolic than spatial. Underlying reference to reproduction and digital culture suggests a state that can be achieved and brought together perhaps contradictorily through painterly flow. Exceptionally able and prolific, Ahmad’s independent paintings make a place where the desire to speak meets the desire to see.

– Sacha Craddock, April 2024
Installation views

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Alia Ahmad, Thought to Image, Albion Jeune.
Selected works
- Alia Ahmad, Branch 2, 2024
- Alia Ahmad, Ground 2, 2024
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