Sculpture show delights art enthusiasts in Taif

Six artists contributed 24 sculptures to the Sculpture Visions exhibition at Mishkat Art Gallery in Riyadh to highlight the direction this art form is taking. The exhibition will last until March 19.
General manager of the gallery Nasser Al-Turki said it was important to have such a specialized exhibition of sculptures or compositions or photography. “This highlights a particular direction in art. It gives viewers the opportunity to study all aspects in the field of art.”
Faisal Alkhdede, a visitor said, “The exhibition gathered works that vary in style and use of material. The sculptures are made of raw, natural stone, wood or bronze and the artists excelled in abstract and free formations.”
Alkhdede noticed that Ali Tokhais presented a number of works, using different natural stones in free formations. Sculptor Mohammed Thaqafi introduced a set of works in which he merged between natural stone, plastics and bronze in female abstract intellectual formations. He felt the artist made “objective prominent human works.” Khudaidi is an artist and the manager of Taif Association for Arts and Culture. He explained what attracted him in the exhibition. “Sculptor Faisal Numan’s works feature a softness in the way he deals with stone. The techniques he uses characterize his skilled and crafty way of working. Kholoud Buqami introduced abstract formations balanced between mass and space. I found he dealt with that raw concept in a proficient and modern way.”
Khudaidi felt that artist Issam Jameel approached his stereoscopic formations innovatively, and Al-Anoud Al-Shaibi dealt intelligently and proficiently with wood grain. “These strongly resembled bronze tripper carving sculptures. They had a human and expressive sense and seemed to carry a message.”
Mohammed Thaqafi, a sculptor from Taif who is participating in the exhibition, said, “At the end of the twentieth century, the art of sculpting made a quantum leap, which led to the development of modern sculpture in the Arab world. A revolution in modern technologies has affected in Saudi Arabia and modern sculptures with their cultural and aesthetic variables reflect a revolution in technology and the methods used.”