AbdulQader AlRais

He is most noted for abstract works that incorporate geometric forms and Arabic script. The use of floating squares across the canvas has become a signature feature in his artworks.

He continued for the next several years to concentrate on local sceneries that became his trademark. Then, at the crucial juncture of his career, when he was moving beyond the traditional subjects in watercolor so indelibly associated with his name, AbdulQader stepped outside himself and began to address issues of artistic authorship and individual style with acuity and critical distance.

Motifs of geometric ops producing multiple illusions of depth were initially added on to the subject. With this series, AbdulQader succeeded in making the geometric forms surrounding the subject matter equally important as the subject matter itself. Moving further, changes in paint handling and stylistic staccato make for extreme variations among his realistic paintings resulting into calligraphic abstract juxtaposed with geometric ops and realistic images in vibrant new canvasses.

The merging of style is his language of pure individual self-expression – and that style is not inextricably bound to a single, authorial hand, but rather separate, mobile, detachable, and potentially re-inhabitable – AbdulQader AlRais’ signature style. In 2015, his artwork was used to decorate carriages of the Dubai Metro, as part of the Dubai Arts Season.

During 2016, Al Rais art pieces were included in a group exhibition in Berlin, entitled Art Nomads - Made in the Emirates which represented contemporary Emirati art and culture.