Transfigurations: Photographs of Tarek Al Ghoussein

Born in Kuwait in 1962, Tarek Al Ghoussein's position as a Palestinian-Kuwaiti shapes the dominant themes of identity, displacement, and politico-structural control prominent in his work. His work, photographs often featuring the figure of the artist silhouetted against barren landscapes, serves as a partial allegory for the obstacles and forms of control facing Palestinians and the diaspora, as well as troubling Western representations of Arabs as terrorists. Other series use the desert as a stage for investigating the artist's relationship to land and place, and are done amidst the rapid urban transformation of the UAE. In the words of Sabine Vogel, his work "goes beyond the specific", and "transforms direct political references into the existentially universal". Transfigurations is published in collaboration with the Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York and will coincide with a solo exhibition at the gallery in 2014.