Artist Sabiha Al Khemir’s work is on display through November 12.
Arrangements of humble Samara or “helicopter” seeds form amazing collages and patterns in a show on view at the Washington Art Association. It was during the pandemic that Tunisian-born artist Sabiha Al Khemir encountered the seeds in Spain—later collecting them in Connecticut and Maine, London, and Ukraine, discovering they unleashed a burst of creativity.
Arranged in patterns recalling constellations, fields of flowers, microscopic slides, flocks of butterflies or birds, the simple natural particles become wondrous links, the artist says, to “creativity, discovery, joy, dancing, and flying.”
Founding Director of the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, Al Khemir’s work has been shown in the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the British Museum. An international traveler, she currently resides in Washington and New York.
Paired with Melissa Greene’s delightfully thoughtful ceramics depicting imagery of women and animals interacting with the natural world, the exhibit will be on display in the Washington Depot gallery through November 12.
