On September 11th the new exhibition “From the Land of Eternity” by Huda Al Saie opens its doors at aquabitArt gallery during Berlin Art Week 2020.

Over the past three years, Al Saie’s work, has transitioned from intricate, detailed imagery on porcelain, to larger, brighter works on canvas. This deliberate transformation was a result of Al Saie’s desire to employ a much more spontaneous style, inherent of gestural marks and bold swathes of colour. Al Saie is admittedly inspired by the traditional architecture of Bahrain, as well as the island Kingdom’s flora, fauna and landscape.

As a connoisseur of Bahraini art, curator Frances Stafford presents the latest works until September 20th, 2020.

The title, “From the Land of Eternity” references Al Saie’s homeland Bahrain, which was, during the 2nd millennium BCE, the capital of the Dilmun civilization. Subsequently, it refers to the paradisiacal myth associated with this ancient land. References in Sumerian mythology, to ‘paradise’ or ‘The Garden of the Gods’, is more often than not, considered to be the land of Dilmun, now present-day Bahrain. Innumerable archaeological sites and finds, including the Dilmun burial mounds (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest graveyards of the ancient world) as well as the Barbar Temple (considered to be a place of worship of the Sumerian God Enki), corroborate such claims.

The dual nature of the word ‘Bahrain’, which literally translates to “two seas”, references both the saltwater of the ocean Gulf, as well as the sweet-water aquifers that traverse the island of Bahrain, thereby nourishing the growth of the lush, green landscape, unique to other countries in the region. Indeed, for this reason, Bahrain has long been described as the “Land of a Million Palm Trees”. Such fertile earth, which was in ancient times considered the land of as immortality and riches, is often considered to have inspired the Garden of Eden story.

And now only one desert remained.

The splendor of Al Saie’s abstract brush strokes mimic aspects of the cool palm groves, the quiet interior courtyards of traditional houses, the majesty of the minarets, arches and domes that adorning ancient architecture, as well as the ever-present sea, sand and sun of the island.

Al Saie is a graduate from The American University of Beirut in Mass Communication/Fine Arts. She studied the art of porcelain painting in Geneva in the early 80’s and began teaching porcelain painting in 1986 in Bahrain. She taught many of the preeminent artists in Bahrain today. Al Saie has exhibited extensively in Bahrain, most notably at the Bahrain National Museum as well as Art Bab, the Kingdom’s leading art fair. Furthermore, she exhibited her work in Kuwait and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In December 2012, part of Al Saie’s collection was showcased in Gstaad, Switzerland. Al Saie has been commissioned by various organisations for porcelain projects in the Gulf region, including the Shaikh Ibrahim Cultural Centre in Muharraq, Bahrain, (2004), the Dubai Civil Aviation Department (2005), Qatar Airways, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), the Bahrain World Trade Centre, The Bahrain National Museum, the National Theatre of Bahrain and the “Pearl Route”, A UNESCO World Heritage site also located in Bahrain.