At Large  November 30, 2021  Art & Object Staff

The Best Art Stories from Sekka Magazine - November 2021

Created: Tue, 11/30/2021 - 14:56
Author: jeremy
Wikicommons - Alfred Weidinger

Bibi Maryam Mausoleum, photo by Alfred Weidinger

Art & Object has partnered with Sekka Magazine to share their amazing art coverage. Founded in 2017 by Manar and Sharifah Alhinai, Sekka is an online arts and culture platform that highlights remarkable stories from around the Arab world. Sekka's mission is to reclaim "the narrative about the Arab World and specifically the Gulf Arab States, in international media, by providing [their] global audience with an authentic insight and guide to one of the most important and misunderstood regions in the world, narrated by the people who are from there." Sekka works with journalists across the Arab world, and ninety percent of the content creators in Sekka Magazine are Arab women. 

Each month, Art & Object is highlighting Sekka's best art stories. Our hope is that our readers come away from these stories more knowledgeable about this culturally rich part of the world but also are able to emotionally connect with art and artists that they might not otherwise have been exposed to.

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Image courtesy of Qasr Al Watan via Sekka Magazine
9 of the Arab World’s Most Beautiful Libraries

 

The architectural beauty in the Arab world is not limited to its grand mosques or glimmering glass buildings. The region’s texts of its rich culture and history can only inhabit buildings of equal grandeur. More than a place with flickering lights and to hold a cram session before the big final, here are nine of the most beautiful libraries of the Arab world, many filled with as much history as they have books...

 

Image: The Qasr Al Watan Library
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Iraqi Artist Abeer Al Edani via Sekka Magazine
Love in Arab Art

 

From family love to self-love, here is how these female Arab artists have depicted love in their various artworks...

Image: Family Love (Stay Together), 2020, oil on canvas, by Iraqi artist Abeer Al Edani.
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Wikicommons - Alfred Weidinger
Bibi Maryam’s Tomb: The Taj Mahal of the Gulf

 

Taj Mahal isn’t only one of the new seven wonders of the world, but it is also a testament of eternal love.  Built in the 17th century by Mughal King Shah Jahan in loving memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, millions of lovers flock to the city of Agra to visit it every year, and to stand in awe at its beauty...

Image: Bibi Maryam Mausoleum, photo by Alfred Weidinger, Photo Credit
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Mahmood Al Zadjali vis Sekka Magazine
The Omani Photographer Sharing the Youth’s Story

 

Oman’s population is predominately young. It is something that is observable to any visitor to the country. Emerging photographer and filmmaker Mahmood Al Zadjali is a creative voice of his generation, and an artist to be reckoned with...

Image: Mahmood Al Zadjali, self-portrait.
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Alia Al Hammadi via Sekka Magazine
Meet the Khaleeji Artist Who Depicts Love Between the Elderly

 

Alia Al Hammadi is part of the growing wave of digital artists in the Arab Gulf States that have found a creative outlet and a following in the thousands in social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. And in a densely populated virtual world where the competition for eyeballs is the order of the day, the Sharjah based artist (who is known as @aliaslens on Instagram) has managed to establish and distinguish herself as an artist through her digital illustrations of  elderly Emirati couples engaging in fun activities like riding scooters, ballroom dancing, playing on a swing, or giddily eating ice cream- while still very much in love...

Image: Illustration by Alia Al Hammadi

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