Image: Ayyam Gallery, Damascus
Ayyam Gallery Dubai will present Hisham Sharif’s first solo exhibition at the gallery and in the UAE, ‘Allusive Veil,’ from 23 September to 30 October 2026.
The gallery says Sharif introduces expressive colour through privacy and intimacy, melding harsh truths with illusions of what could be. It describes the scenes as autobiographical and connected to the struggles of private and artistic life in a closed society.
According to the gallery, the paintings tell stories of coming of age, love and relationships, while voyeuristic scenes offer windows into Sharif’s introspective reflections on his surroundings. The gallery says his treatment of taboo subjects uses humble depictions that preserve a certain Oriental sensibility while avoiding the shock value or censorship they might otherwise provoke.
The gallery presents ‘Allusive Veil’ as the culmination of an introspective struggle Sharif has been grappling with over the past few years. It also describes his visual language as influenced by 19th-century French painting and as foreign to the region and his local contemporaries.
