Renowned Palestinian artist Nabil Anani's exhibition, The land and I, is set to open at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai on 29 September 2024. The exhibition features a series of landscape works that reflect Anani’s connection to the land. Using natural materials like wood, straw, spices, and seeds, Anani’s paintings envision a free Palestine, a future without barriers or occupation. The exhibition is a powerful statement on the relationship between the artist, his Palestinian identity, and his aspiration for freedom. In his paintings, Anani ties himself and the Palestinian people to their homeland, asserting presence while reimagining the future.

The exhibition serves as a celebration of Palestine that he dreams of; manicured nature, without checkpoints, cement barriers, or settlements as a way to assert the presence of Palestinians but also to reimagine a free future. Anani says that he inherited his love for the land from his father during his childhood in Halhul, north of Hebron. He states “From the beginning of my artistic journey, I have been passionate about painting the beauty of rural life and the breathtaking landscapes of Palestine”.

Anani has been experimenting with natural mediums since the First Intifada, using local materials, like leather, wood, straw, dried herbs, and seeds, infusing his paintings with the very elements of the earth that he intimately portrays. He adds “I experiment by using new materials all the time. With these experiments, I aim to develop my artistic style in a way that adds depth to the color and texture quality of my visual artistic expression”.