maryam’s sons

maryam’s sons

2026

Ghadah Alkandari

Acrylic, Painter

Hemoglobin - Acrylic on canvas - 140 x 140 cm - 2025

Ghadah’s body of work ranges from large-scale, primarily figurative, acrylic paintings exploring the wide spectrum of human emotion and familial complexities, to smaller, intimate pen and ink drawings that focus on the banality of everyday life.

About the Artist

Ghadah Alkandari is a Kuwaiti artist born in Delhi in 1969. In 1992 she received a BA in Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo. But it was a six-week painting course at the School of Visual Arts that shaped her current painting style, which was also influenced early on by both classical painters: Cezanne, Matisse, Schiele, Modigliani and Klimt, and comic books: Mad Magazine, Archie and Asterix.

Recently, her work has segued into more abstract forms and shapes, a deconstruction of her usual subjects. Abandoning the familiar forms she was accustomed to has allowed her to immerse herself further into her works, by transporting her own movement and physical tics into her paintings.

Before Departure - Acrylic on canvas - 91 x 122 cm - 2025

Red-Eye Three - Acrylic on paper with yarn - 35 x 46 cm - 2025

Blood out, Blood In - Acrylic on canvas - 76 x 101 cm - 2025

Letter to a Boy, Note to a Man - Acrylic on canvas - 140 x 250 cm - 2025

Numerous solo exhibitions

The artist had numerous solo exhibitions in Kuwait and abroad, and has participated in several group exhibitions locally and internationally, including the Arab Culture in Diaspora exhibition in Kuwait, Femmes Artistes Du Koweit at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2006), Approaches to Figurative Practices at the Third Line Gallery, Dubai (2007), and Metro 23 | Half-Tales from a Moving Train, Access Art Space, Cairo, Egypt (2023)

@Folk art space

Explore other exhibitions

In the shelter of green

2025

Motion Art Gallery - Cairo

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Gardening holds a special place in my heart. The spaces I inhabit are never without houseplants. I’m constantly amazed by how these plants, though confined to pots in enclosed interiors, would grow to immense sizes in their native environments—sometimes large enough to dwarf homes. This contrast makes me reflect on how space influences our own growth and the decisions we make. Indoor gardening, for me, has become a way of inviting nature into our homes, an ongoing dialogue between the organic and the inanimate, unfolding within the limitations of interior space.

Gardening holds a special place in my heart. The spaces I inhabit are never without houseplants. I’m constantly amazed by how these plants, though confined to pots in enclosed interiors, would grow to immense sizes in their native environments—sometimes large enough to dwarf homes. This contrast makes me reflect on how space influences our own growth and the decisions we make. Indoor gardening, for me, has become a way of inviting nature into our homes, an ongoing dialogue between the organic and the inanimate, unfolding within the limitations of interior space.

The Glow of the city

2025

Folk Art Space

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In his City Lights series, Mohamed Abla transforms the urban landscape into a vibrant tapestry of energy and rhythm. The works capture the glow, pulse, and fleeting beauty of cities at night, where light becomes both subject and symbol—reflecting human presence, movement, and memory. Abla’s brushstrokes invite viewers to feel the atmosphere of the city, not just see it, offering a poetic meditation on modern life illuminated by its own brilliance.

In his City Lights series, Mohamed Abla transforms the urban landscape into a vibrant tapestry of energy and rhythm. The works capture the glow, pulse, and fleeting beauty of cities at night, where light becomes both subject and symbol—reflecting human presence, movement, and memory. Abla’s brushstrokes invite viewers to feel the atmosphere of the city, not just see it, offering a poetic meditation on modern life illuminated by its own brilliance.