The National Art Gallery’s 2009 exhibtion season has opened with Maldives Contemporary 2009. The exhibtion consist of works by 24 artsits both established and emerging.

Following is a review from www.minivannews.com:

Art review: Maldivian Contemporary 2009
By: Aishath Shazra, 1 February 2009

Want to see different facets of Maldivian life in one location? Then head over to the Maldives Contemporary 2009 exhibition at the National Art Gallery.

Showcasing a range of visual mediums such as digital photography, digital painting and oil painting as well as the rarely-practised pyrography, the artworks are nothing short of an ode to life in Maldives.

The most striking aspect of the exhibition is the sheer diversity of artwork. Paintings by veterans like Sarudhaaru Dhon Manik and NT Hassan Didi in their mid-80s share the same space as emerging artists such as 19-year-old photographer Aminath Shareehan Ibrahim. 

“Taste is subjective,” says a smiling Sarudhaaru Dhon Manik as he wanders around the gallery. “An artwork can move a person to tears or make him smile, nobody can criticise it.” His own paintings, Madi & Landaa, capture the teeming underwater life of the Maldives vividly.

One artist, Abdul Rahman uses pyrography on wood to startling effect. Souvenir artists by trade, both Rahman and another of the artists Hussain Ihfal Ahmed have used the exhibition as a platform to reach out to a different audience.

And as you move around the gallery you notice two photos of a rain-soaked Male’. Among the varying shades of grey there is a burst of colour, a polythene bag held over a man’s head as he makes a dash in the rain. 

The image was captured through the lens of artist Shareehan. “I shot it from my balcony, while everyone was running about in the rain,” she says.

Recalling Marcel Duchamp, Mohamed Manal’s sculpture the Imagination Emitting Device, turns found pieces into art. 

After examining his sculpture, made from taps, doll’s arms and broken switches to name a few, you never will look at junk in the same way again.

But what stands out to habitués of the gallery are artists such as Mariyam Naeema Omar with their distinct signature styles.

Omar’s work is instantly identifiable. Her use of coffee and ash give her pictures an earthy feel. A range of colours, burnt oranges, rich browns and ochres cover the canvas, punctuated by the snow-white limbs of what appears to be a woman. 

The richness of her work lies in its ambiguity; behind each brushstroke there lies a myriad of interpretation.

“I don’t draw the head because in society everyone wears a protective mask to avoid judgement. We don’t get to see the real person.”

The ancient Dhivehi font and motifs make another of the pieces instantly recognisable as one of Afzal Shafiu Hassan’s paintings. His work conjures up a completely different aspect of life in the Maldives. 

The words are from the famous poem Dhiyoge Raivaru while the motifs are from the Friday mosque. A woman in one of the paintings, he says, is taken taken from a very old photograph.

Mamduh Waheed, the curator of the gallery said the work exhibited was much broader than in the past. 

He related an anecdote about the first Maldives Contemporary exhibition in 2005 when two hours before the opening, the then president’s security forces came and asked him to remove two paintings depicting torture. 

“There was no such intrusion this time,” he said, adding the gallery planned to hold the exhibition every three years. 

So here it is. Life in Maldives depicted through the eyes of various artists. You marvel at the sheer diversity and beauty of work presented, especially when considering most of the artists lack any kind of formal training. 

And as you wander around, you can’t help but think, what would the future hold for the Maldives if an art school was opened up and if talented Maldivians were given the opportunity to hone their talents under the guidance of a teacher?

Maldives Contemporary 2009, National Art Gallery, 29 January - 28 February, 10am-4pm and 8pm-10pm