Salah Elmur, Muhannad Shono: The Art Library: Discovering Arab Artists

By (Editor): Mona Khazindar, Misk Art Institute The seventh and eighth volumes of “The Art Library,” a pioneering art series that documents the most important modern and contemporary Arab artists.

These gorgeously designed volumes offer an informal and yet detailed introduction to the most prominent figures of Arab art. The collection is characterized by medium-size books, each one dedicated to a single artist, richly illustrated and rigorously documented.

The publications, published in English and Arabic editions, are launched seasonally, in spring and fall, two by two, in a sophisticated cardboard slipcase. Each slipcase presents a Saudi artist along with a non-Saudi artist.

Salah Elmur’s work is composed of a fertile visual vocabulary that draws on his social and cultural heritage. Inspired by the many photographs he has collected from his family’s photography studio, Elmur’s paintings often emulate formal portrait settings with additional elements that complement but also unsettle the mood in his paintings.

Muhannad Shono is a visual artist who feels no limitation to medium or scale. His multidisciplinary practice is catalyzed and structured by story. Shono’s work harnesses the power of narrative by creating and contesting personal, collective, and historical truths.