Past Residents

Residents Map

Mojé Assefjah

In her paintings, Mojé Assefjah develops her own distinctive visual language. The broad, arching bands of color exploit the picture space in all directions and the brush strokes entwine themselves delicately yet dynamically across the picture carrier with characteristic chromaticity, becoming denser and overlapping as they lead the viewer’s gaze to deeper levels. By applying multiple thin layers using the almost-forgotten egg tempera technique and India ink, the artist produces color effects which evoke the Italian frescoes of the early Renaissance. The lush hues of the darker loops in the foreground of the picture contrast with the chalky tonality of the background. Although the artist is committed to non-representative painting, her pictures nonetheless convey a feeling of spatiality and conjure up associations with landscapes. Assefjah’s pictorial worlds are characterized by lightness and structural density, with the alternation of transparency and opacity, daytime and darkness creating a mysterious and atmospheric quality.

Mojé Assefjah (born 1970 in Tehran) moved to Munich, Germany where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts 1999. She was awarded for Fine Arts of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, as well as the annual scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a residency in Rome. Recent exhibitions include Down To The River, Galerie Graf & Schelble, Basel; Art Dubai, Gallery Tanit, Beirut, 2013;  Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg, 2012; A vista d’ occhio, Galerie Tanit, Munich, 2011; Water for my flower…, Espace Kettaneh Kunigk, Beirut, 2010 and L’ Iran sans frontières,  Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, 2009. Assefjah is represented  by Gallery Tanit, Munich/Beirut; Gallery Graf & Schelble, Basel and Gallery Nanna Preußners, Hamburg.

Past Resident
2013: Al-Riwaq Art Space

Jaffar Al Oraibi

Jaffar Al Oraibi began drawing and painting early in life, first drawing portraits of friends and family members and then landscapes in Bahrain. His work has evolved toward the evolution of knowing the world of art and artists, through direct visits inside and outside Bahrain.

Jaffar Al Oraibi (born 1976) is one of Bahrain’s foremost emerging contemporary artists, with a Bachelor of Education from the University of Bahrain. His work has been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at Cuadro Fine Art Gallery, Dubai, and Al Riwaq Art Space, Bahrain. Group exhibitions include Morocco’s Asilah Festival, the China Art Olympiad Biennale, the 5th International Print Triennial in Egypt, and the Cité International des Arts in France. He has won numerous awards for his work, such as first prize at the Qatari Diar Art Symposium, special recognition at the 32nd Annual Plastic Arts exhibit at Bahrain’s National Museum, and the Silver Palm from the seven GCC art exhibitions, Kuwait. Al Oraibi was an artist-in-residence at Cité International des Arts and the Delfina Foundation in London.

Anastasia Ax

Each of Anastasia Ax’s performances is a new performance; this is essential to her practice. Each meeting between the performer and the audience, every destruction of the material at hand, points towards a situation of indeterminacy and free activity where inner and outer can switch place. The role of ink in these activities is double-edged. It belongs to the world of drawing, the physical acts of filling out the white spaces, but the black ink has an element of poison and bile, melancholy and destruction as well. The raw energies connected with the splashing, the spitting out, the havoc, transform time from linear dimensions into circular moments. New thoughts and new communions take shape through the unpredictable openness of the situation.

Anastasia Ax, born 1979, lives and works in Stockholm. Her recent solo exhibitions include Pan Theon, Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, 2012; Bring New Life to Death, in collaboration with Marja- Leena Sillanpää, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2012; Pan Theon, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2012; Step into the current, AM art-space, Shanghai, 2012;Katarsis, in collaboration with Lars Siltberg, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, 2012; Exile,Way out West, Göteborg, 2011; An Experimental Conference on Art and Science, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2011; Reactor, Luleå Konstmuseeum, Luleå, 2011; Trunk, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg, 2010; The Kid Below, Taidihalli, Helsinki, 2010; L&A in collaboration with Lars Siltberg, Galleri Verkligheten, Umeå, 2010; 2010, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg; 2010, The Kid Below, Reykjavik Art Museum, 2010; The Kid Below, Konstakademin, Stockholm, 2010; Exile, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, 2010 and New drawings and sculptures, Natalia Goldin gallery, Stockholm, 2009. In 2010, Ax was shortlisted for the Carnegie Art Award 2010. Her works are on display at several museums and arthalls such as; Moderna Museet, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, the Carnegie Art Award collection and Gävle Konstcentrum.