XVA Gallery hosts UAE-based artists Richard Ketley and Alejandra Palos

Coming up at Dubai's XVA Gallery is Paintings of Nowhere by Richard Ketley and Rooted by Alejandra Palos (Sept. 13 ~ Oct. 16).

- Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

The gallery will explore how the two artists share and transform its space, revealing the ways their work resonates, contrasts, and connects. In Paintings of Nowhere, Richard Ketley unveils a remarkable collection of abstract works, born from the essence of his journeys into the rugged, silent heart of the United Arab Emirates.

Ketley, an artist deeply moved by the unseen energies and ancient narratives embedded in the landscape, found his muse not in the bustling metropolises, but in the stark beauty and ethereal quiet of the UAE's interior, most notably the majestic Hajar Mountains. Through his lens, its imposing peaks and expansive empty spaces are not merely geographical features, but are conduits to a deeper understanding of existence. His works, rendered in a striking monochrome palette, pulsate with the raw textures and nuanced shades that echo the windswept sands of the desert and the mountains' unyielding stone - revealing a universe of form and depth in the absence of colour.

Paintings of Nowhere is an invitation to shed the routine of the familiar and embrace a journey into the abstract. Each black and white piece serves not as a portrait of a place, but as a meditation on its spirita visual symphony of light, shadow, monumental scale, and a profound sense of eternity that are the features of these common but often overlooked territories. So, prepare to discover the “nowhere” that resides in the very heart of the UAE, revealed through Ketley’s hand.