Omani artist Saleem Sakhi has a knack of simplifying and minimalizing his subjects. In his hands, nature and environment are reduced to the barest minimum of lines and forms and stark colours are laid flat in soft muted shades. A single gaze is all it takes to succumb to the understated enchantment of his canvases.
In his most recent exhibition ‘Desert Tunes’ at the Gallery Sarah, Sakhi takes a deep and contemplative look at the ever-changing landscape of the desert, where the winds are continually sculpting dunes out of the shapeless sands.
His exhibition that opened on April 10, will run until April 25.
Sakhi’s desert is at once a place of mystery and awe, wonder and magic. Desert Tunes celebrates the pre-eminence of nature, in this case the all-pervading, expansive magnificence of the Arabian desert.
With his extraordinary interplay of lines and colours, Sakhi transforms his deserts into solid, geometric forms, with a reassuring sort of permanence. Everyone knows that a desert dune can be transient. One moment it is imposing, like a high, wedge-shaped mountain silhouetted against the sun. But it doesn’t take long to be whipped away into nothingness by the winds.
But through all of this, Sakhi takes his audience on a visually rich experience, where every colour, shade, hue and tone has something to tell you.
The Desert Tune Exhibition will run until 26th April, from 9:00am till 5:30pm Sundays-Thursdays at Gallery Sarah.
