Qatar Museums (QM) is proud to open an exhibition by Qatari contemporary artist Ebtisam Al Saffar at the Doha Fire Station Artist in Residence space.

Open from 10am – 10pm until 22^nd May in the Annex Building (above Café #999), the exhibition celebrates the accomplishments of Al Saffar during her three-month Qatari Art Residency Program in Paris.

Al Saffar was the first artist to take part in the unique Qatari Art Residency Exchange Programme, organised under the patronage of Qatar Museums’ Chairperson, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The programme, which was hosted at the Qatar Studio at the renowned Cité internationale des Arts, Paris, France, saw Ebtisam travel to Paris for three months, have a studio space in one of the biggest and most important art residencies in the world and interact with other talented artists from around the world.

To open the exhibition, Al Saffar gave a successful public talk to a large audience in the Fire Station’s cinema on Monday evening to discuss her journey, experiences and the works that she produced during her time in Paris, which are now on show in Doha.

Al Saffar‘s works in her exhibition focus on visual expressions of human faces and the expressive energy that they produce. The artist has called her collection of paintings produced during her residency in Paris "What is Left in the Faces", as she believes that what remains in a facial expression after every experience that a human encounters does not end, but is instead transmitted from one generation to the next.

Khalifa Al Obaidli, Director of the Fire Station, said:

“We are proud to open this powerful and unique exhibition by Ebtisam Al Saffar at Doha’s Fire Station Artist in Residence. Al Saffar is a hugely talented artist, and her works will not only inspire the local community, but they will also inspire our own artists in residence, and help to create an indigenous culture of creativity and innovation in Qatar. We will continue to provide more opportunities for Qatari artists to visit Paris to encounter different cultures and to connect to the everyday life of local citizens.”

Ebtisam Al Saffar was born in Doha in 1971, and graduated from the Faculty of Art Education in 1995. She is a member of the Qatar Arts Association. Al Saffar has participated in many art exhibitions all over the world including in France, Dhaka, Japan, Tunis, Rabat, Oman, and Qatar. Most recently, she held an exhibition in Tunisia at the Mediterranean Symposium of Contemporary Art.

The Qatari Art Residency Programme is a recurring three-month residency open to all Qatari artists, and provides one lucky artist at a time a studio accommodation space and the chance to experience an art residency in Paris, visit museums, galleries and be immersed in the art scene in the city.

For more information, visit: http://www.firestation.org.qa/paris-art-residency-2017

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QNE

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