JNAN NUWARR
digital print on duratrans in lightbox
220 x 81.5cm; 86 5/8 x 32 1/8 in (framed)

Executed in 2008, this work is number 2 from an edition of 3.

Property of a Private Collector, London

Provenance
The Third Line Gallery, Dubai
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Arwa Abouon was a Libyan-Canadian artist who lived and worked in Montreal. Her largely photographic work probes – with beauty and often with humour – her individual experience of straddling multiple cultures and notions of plural identity.

Abouon studied design art at Montreal’s Concordia University, graduating in 2007. Born of Amazigh descent in Tripoli, Libya, her family immigrated to Canada when she was one year old. Inspired by her father who instilled a strong sense of family values in her, and frequently employing old photographs to teach herself about her Libyan heritage, Abouon often staged photographs in her narrative works.

The artist paid homage to the transgenerational transmission of traditional values through her work, considering a blend of subverted ideas of nostalgia and the diasporic longing for home. Her work was rooted in her dynamic personal reflections on human nature, striving to meet and see the world as it is while embracing the multiple perspectives of her thoughtful gaze. Her goal was to inspire “a finer appreciation of the Islamic culture” centring around the culture’s poetic foundations, rather than the political issues often associated with it.

Abouon's estate is represented by the Third Line Gallery in Dubai where she had her first solo show, ‘Learning by Heart,’ in 2012. More recently, she held solo shows in London (Print Studio, 2015), Sharjah (Islamic Arts Festival, 2014) and Sabhan, Kuwait (Sultan Gallery, 2014). In addition, Abouon participated in dozens of shows and art fairs in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, including at the Institut du monde arabe, Paris; the Bamako Biennale, Mali; and the Sharjah Museum, UAE, among others.