Palestinian artist Ruba Salameh works on the canvas of art in the face of killings

Zawyeh Gallery is presenting Refined Compositions, a solo exhibition by Palestinian artist Ruba Salameh (Sept. 13 - Nov. 9) at Zawyeh's space in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. (The Palestinian-owned gallery also has a space in Ramallah, Palestine). Created at a time when catastrophe unfolds in real time, Refined Compositions asks: How can one continue to make art in the face of genocide? In her new works, Salameh turns to abstraction as a way of carrying memory, mourning, and resilience, while remaining in dialogue with late Palestinian painter and art historian, Kamal Boullata.

- Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Boullata’s seminal piece Homage to the Flag (1995) becomes a living point of resonance, connecting Salameh's practice to a wider continuum of Palestinian artists, for whom the Palestinian flag and its colours are both a site of hope and of censorship. In Salameh's work, the colours of the flag, historically banned or suppressed, reappear in reduced and reimagined palettes. Her method is one of patience and layering: canvases are sometimes left aside for months or years before being reworked, concealed, and resurfaced. The cycle of interruption and return mirrors the fragile but enduring nature of memory itself. A recurring presence in her paintings is the ant. Tiny, almost invisible, ants emerge along borders and surfaces as fragile yet enduring markers.

For Salameh, ants symbolise hard work, farming culture, and a deep connection to the land. Their organic movement across the earth reflects their role as an inherent part of the planet's ecosystem; it is a symbol of the quiet endurance of Palestinian workers and farmers. By weaving together personal memory, cultural lineage and a commitment to abstraction, Salameh's Refined Compositions offers a deeply felt meditation on what endures, and how grief, resistance, and hope moves across generations. There is no one or simple answer to the question, how does one make art in the face of genocide? This is especially true since we are not speaking of a closed chapter, but of a catastrophe unfolding in real-time right before our eyes.