Between Mist and Meridian
Group Exhitbion
Some things carry across distances. A shared formation, a cold city far from home, a set of questions about who we are and where we come from. And because memory is not passive — it selects, distorts, insists — in the hands of an artist, it becomes something else entirely: a vessel that holds what language cannot.
Between Mist and Meridian brings together the works of Hakim Al Akel, Abdelsattar Al Mussa, and Thuraya Al-Baqsami — three Arab artists whose practices span different generations and geographies, yet are bound by a shared artistic foundation shaped by their studies in Moscow. Each developed a distinct visual language. What remains common is the commitment: to memory, to identity, to the human experience as it is carried through cultural heritage.
The exhibition unfolds as a dialogue between place, people, and collective memory. Through painting, the three artists trace how personal histories and cultural narratives embed themselves within landscapes, figures, and symbols — and how the relationship between individual experience and collective identity endures.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Thuraya Al-Baqsami
Artist
Thuraya Al-Baqsami is one of the most influential artists in the Gulf region, whose practice spans painting, printmaking, and literary writing. Born in Kuwait, she has contributed since the 1970s to shaping the landscape of Kuwaiti and contemporary Arab art through a practice that bridges artistic innovation with cultural identity.
Al-Baqsami studied art at the Surikov Moscow State Academy of Fine Arts, where she received a rigorous academic training that left a lasting mark on her artistic and intellectual formation. She went on to channel that foundation into a visual language rooted in Arab and Gulf culture, drawing from folk heritage, everyday life, and the social and human concerns of her world.
Women occupy a central place in Al-Baqsami's work, appearing not merely as subjects but as symbols of identity, strength, and cultural memory. Her work also engages with themes of belonging, freedom, and social justice, through a visual language that weaves together symbolic expression, bold color, and narrative composition.
Al-Baqsami has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Kuwait and internationally, and her works are held in distinguished public and private collections and cultural institutions across the Arab world and beyond. She is equally recognized for her literary and cultural contributions, which have established her as an influential voice in Gulf cultural life.
Thuraya Al-Baqsami's practice stands as a model of an artist who has seamlessly woven together artistic modernity and cultural rootedness, creating work that celebrates the human experience — and women in particular — as carriers of memory and active shapers of the future.
Hakim Al Akel
Artist
Hakim Al Akel is a painter and art critic born in 1965 in the Republic of Yemen. He holds a Master of Arts in Mural Painting from the Surikov Moscow State Academy of Fine Arts (1994). Al Akel is a founding member of the Association of Yemeni Fine Artists (1986), and has served as an instructor of drawing at Sana'a University (1994) and Queen Arwa University (1998–2001), as well as General Coordinator of the Sana'a International Fine Art Forum (2008–2011). Throughout his career, he has served as a jury member in numerous local and international competitions, festivals, and exhibitions.
Al Akel held his first solo exhibition at the Central House of Artists in Moscow in 1992, and has since presented his work across Yemen, Bahrain, and Russia, participating in over 80 Arab and international exhibitions between 1993 and 2018. His works are held in collections worldwide, including the State Museum of Izhevsk in the Republic of Udmurtia, Russia; the National Museum of Taiz; the Yemeni Bank for Reconstruction and Development; the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Information in Yemen; the Farhat Art Museum in Lebanon; the Jordanian Museum; and the Ministries of Culture in China, Bahrain, and Qatar.
His work is also held in private and institutional collections across Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Morocco, France, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
Alongside his practice as a painter, Al Akel has authored critical essays and academic publications on art, published in Morocco, Paris, the UAE, Qatar, and Beijing, among other countries. He has also written catalogue texts for numerous solo and group exhibitions.
Abdulsattar Al Moussa
Artist
Born in Al-Ahsa. Studied at the Surikov Moscow State Academy of Fine Arts (graphics and composition). First solo exhibition at the People's Friendship University in Moscow (1981). Bachelor's and master's degrees, 1982. Solo exhibitions in Germany (1986) and Abu Dhabi Cultural Centre (1992). Works held in the Pushkin Museum, Donetsk Museum, Mariupol Museum, and private collections across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Poland, and the Netherlands.
FEATURED ARTWORK
Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 90 cm · 2021 · Hakim Al Akel
40 x50 · Silk screen on paper · 2022 · Thuraya Al-Baqsam
57 x 70 cm · Carving on cardboard · 1986 · Abd El Sattar Al Mussa
