UAE artists exhibit artworks to support Kerala flood victims

Over 20 artists from different nationalities are holding an exhibition titled Together We Can to raise funds to rebuild Kerala. The exhibition is being held across all seven emirates starting from Dubai and 50% proceeds of the sale will go to the flood victims of Kerala through the Kerala chief minister's fund.
28 artists from 10 countries such as India, Pakistan, Egypt, Scotland , Canada, Jordan, Vietnam and Philippines, US, Kuwait and UAE - displayed their works at the Flora Hotel in Al Barsha on Thursday evening. The three-day exhibition was organised by artists and sisters Shiba Khan and Farah Khan through their non-profit art platform Funun Arts that represents emerging artists from various nationalities residing in the UAE.
Asked on what moved her to organise the exhibition, Shiba said: "A close associate of mine has been affected by the floods and I have seen how they lost all they had back in Kerala. This is something that moved me and as an artist I felt the need to voice my emotions through my artwork. I also asked the others to join hands for this noble cause and the response I received for this call was overwhelming. I was flooded with requests not only from artists from the UAE but we even got requests from artists based in Pakistan who wanted to courier their paintings for the exhibition but we couldn't accommodate due to logistical issues."
Famous yoga practitioner Bharat Thakur , who visited the exhibition as a guest also decided to donate an iconic painting done by him worth Dh30,000, giving 100% proceeds to the Kerala chief minister's fund for the flood victims.
Renowned artist Art Noor, whose painting was exhibited at the Burj Khalifa, also donated his painting, worth Dh10,000.
Talking about the unique aspect of the exhibition, Shiba said: " We have ensured that none of our paintings are dull. We asked all the artists to submit bright and happy paintings that give a message of hope and happiness. The colours used in all our paintings here are lively, bright colours as we want to raise their spirits and not talk about any dull or negative emotions.
Yasser Al Gergawi, Director of Projects and Events at Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, who was the guest of honour at the event, said: "Being a human being we must come together to help each other out regardless of nationality, race, gender. This is very evident from this exhibition where you see people from all nationalities donating their art work, which is not just art but a part of their personality, their emotions, and a part of themselves for the people of Kerala. It is not the amount behind the paintings that is important but the emotion behind it that should be valued here. These are the values this country UAE represents and we are happy to see these residents of the UAE inheriting these values."
The exhibition will be moving to all the seven emirates over a period of two months in order to raise funds from across the UAE. After three days in Dubai, the exhibition will be held in Sharjah's Sheraton Hotel on October 4 for a week. It will then move to Fairmont hotel in Ajman for a week, then to Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and finally to Abu Dhabi.
Talking about her painting, Shiba said: " My painting shows three boats, three balloons and children showing that we all need to come together, hold each other's hands and move towards a better future.
Indian artist Yuvika Garg, whose painting was titled Twilight, said: " My paintings usually depict journey of people and show people in a trans kind of state. For this exhibition I chose this painting as it shows a bit of darkness and light, which has a message of hope for the people of Kerala in these hard times. My message is that no matter how much darkness is around us, in this journey of life there is always light at some point. We want to tell the people of Kerala that we are with them and they will come out of these hard times soon."
saman@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Dubai