Khairat Al-Saleh

ARTIST’S BACKGROUND

A British Syrian artist living and working in Richmond. Khairat is a poet, painter, printmaker, ceramist as well as a glassmaker. She studied English literature and drama at the University of Wales where she was awarded two postgraduate degrees the last of them, Magister in Artibus, in 1982. Then she worked in publishing and as an interpreter before finally devoting herself to art in 1998. Khairat composes poetry in Arabic and English and she wrote a book entitled Fabled Cities. She trained as a potter, printmaker and glassmaker at Richmond School of Art. Her art owes much to her research at the British library, British Museum and V&A which house a rich collection of Arab and Islamic manuscripts and ceramics. As a glassmaker, she is explores the glory of light as reflected and filtered through glass. In the glass world one discovers a fourth dimension: living light. Instead of painting with brushes, one can paint with light as it cascades through multi-coloured glass. Khairat has exhibited in London, Geneva, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, USA, Syria and Amsterdam.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

The National Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan.
World Museum, Rotterdam.
Shoman Foundsation, Amman. Jordan.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Because I was born in the Arab World and crossed over to live in Britain, it became imperative that I should reconcile East and West and dwell culturally where they meet. As I travel back in time and space in search of immemorial times seeking the treasures of our ancient earth, I find that I am enriching my own fragment of earth and adding fresh layers of awareness to my experience. I know that my artistic journey through time is largely a quest for meaning. For like many others, I believe that our contemporary existence needs to rediscover meaning. We all need to make history integral and civilizations chapters in one book in order to master enough vision to embrace the world and all its peoples since time began .

EXHIBITIONS

Trail of Glass, Kew, 2005
Members’ Exhibition, The Coach House Gallery, Kew, 2003

Just Glass Rights Reserved 2003- 2012