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Hawazin Al-Otaibi
Soft Whispers
Opens 13 May 2022
Private View 17 May 2022 6-9pm
RSVP here
Coinciding with spring’s climax, Saudi artist Hawazin Al-Otaibi will present at Harlesden High Street her solo show Soft Whispers, featuring new works from her painting series “Softboi”. This body of work of lavishing vibrant colours and bucolic imagery plays with ironic, non-conforming representations of masculinity in the Arab world.
Al-Otaibi draws her references from early childhood memories of Saudi cultural and religious books on femininity and their aesthetics as well as the symbolism associated with female purity, beauty, chastity and vulnerability. By playfully portraying Saudi men in charming, romanticised scenarios, covered in exuberant flowers and often accompanied by white doves, she reverses and appropriates these inherited notions of gender and ironically refers to religious iconography of both Christianity and Islam.
The exhibition will take the form of a site specific installation and will be accompanied by a celebratory shisha event during London Gallery Weekend.
Curated by Lucia Rios Gonzalez
Install view
Dreamy, 2021
41x68 cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Sparks, 2022
47x58cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Animated mapping via projector
Pearly 2022
65x45 cm
experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
All around me 2022
25x35 cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Thinking of You II,2022
35x30 cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Mystical, 2022
65x45 cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Reflected, 2022
45x65cm
Experimental printing and acrylic on canvas
Soft Whispers Part II (24 June - 17 July 2022)
Three new works were made for the extension of the show as well as a reconfiguration of the installation within the space
Bubble Gum, 2022
Experimental Painting, gold paint and Acrylic on canvas
65x110 cm
Cloud9, 2022
Experimental Painting and Acrylic on canvas
65x110 cm
My Time is Yours, 2022
Experimental Painting and Acrylic on canvas
65x110 cm
Hawazin Alotaibi (B.1993, Wisconson) is a London-based Saudi-American interdisciplinary artist, curator, DJ, and music producer who earned her BA in Painting at the University of the Arts.
Recent exhibitions
Fingerprints of a Lover, Grove Collective/Black Haus, Berlin, 2022 (Solo)
Incubator, London, 2021 (solo)
Selected Press
London Gallery Weekend - Evening Standard feature
The Art Newspaper Feature
Nation News: Five international highlights of London Gallery Weekend: Saudi artist to Indian artworks
Artnet Feature