Maysaloun Faraj is an Iraqi-American visual artist. Born in the US 1955, Rx moved to Iraq in 1968 and attained BSc Architecture, Baghdad University 1978. Faraj relocated to London 1982 furthering her art education, working in a variety of mediums; ceramics, painting, and sculpture. Held numerous solo exhibitions including Boats and Burdens: Kites and Shattered Dreams 2009 which was inaugurated by Dr. Venetia Porter and participated in noteworthy group shows e.g. Word Into Art (2006/8). Since 2010 she has been casting in bronze with Philip Freiensener Artbron ze Foundry. Her work is in important collections including the British Museum, Rotterdam Wereld Museum, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Jordan National Museum, Barjeel Art Foundation, Aga Khan Foundation, and significant others. In 1995 Faraj founded Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art / iNCiA; is the editor of the accompanying publication. In 2002 she founded Aya Gallery curating significant exhibitions until 2010. In 2008 she was invited as a judge for the first Arab Art and Culture Award UK. In 2015 she was a resident at the Cite Internationale des Arts Paris, resulting in Bird Symphony now in the collections of Al-Mansouria Foundation. Maysaloun Faraj has lived and worked in London since 1982.

Sara Abdu (b. 1993) is of Yemeni origin, born and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she also currently lives and works. She first acquired a diploma in graphic design and digital art in 2012, from the Future Institution of Higher Education and Training (FIL), and then a B.A in English Language & Literature in 2017. She progressed her practice as a self-taught artist, heavily influenced by the common qualities between nature and the human condition, including people’s stories that construct realities.

Between 2013-2017, Abdu completed a course at The Arab Open University in Saudi Arabia, leading to her accomplishment of Master Choa Kik Sui; basic Pranic Healing Course at the World Pranic Healing Foundation. The latter, serve as heavy influences in the thematic exploration of Abdu’s current work.

Her solo show, titled The Intangible Bonds in Our Existence, was held at Athr Gallery in 2014.

Abdu has been featured in a number of group shows, the latest being Safar for 21,39 and Letters [2017]. She has also participated in regional and international art fairs, namely Start Art Fair in London [2014] and most recently, Art Abu Dhabi in [2017]. Abdu has also completed a residency program at La Cité Internationale des arts Paris France [2017]. Her work is in the collection of The Green Box Museum, Amsterdam, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Foundation.

Abdu’s work challenges perceptions of beauty and explores the notion of opposites- be it between the beautiful and the grotesque, reality and dreams, the unconscious and the lucid. Her techniques involve the use of dry black ink on paper, and perceives the reworking of her stroke as both exhausting and cathartic- an equally conflicted reflection as the themes she explores in the work itself. Abdu aims to question humanity’s free will, whether we are free agents, or controlled and bound by an inevitable fate. She in equally interested in exploring the mechanisms by which our identities are formed

In her latest series, unforbidden lands, Abdu presents her drawings as part of a wider sculptural installation where runners, panels and mirrors reinforce the artwork and amplify it into an all-encompassing realm. One where she offers the viewer ownership over the work and space to identify their own narratives onto the work. Abdu argues that our realities are informed by an inner light residing within us. For Abdu, this inner light in intuition, connected to a higher level of the universe. The project is also inspired by landscapes and organic elements that the mind creates, to develop languages for better communication, and to encourage a state of spiritual stillness.