Ali Kaaf - Dins un garbell no es pot guardar el sol

  • Helmet, 2018, glassblowing, 40 x 30 x 26 cm.

    Helmet, 2018, glassblowing, 40 x 30 x 26 cm.

  • Black and White nº 3, 2012, glassblowing, 47 x 27 x 27 cm.

    Black and White nº 3, 2012, glassblowing, 47 x 27 x 27 cm.

  • Helmet nº 4, 2012, glassblowing, 27 x 20 x 25 cm.

    Helmet nº 4, 2012, glassblowing, 27 x 20 x 25 cm.

  • Tattoo, 2012, glassblowing, 30 x 21 x 16 cm.

    Tattoo, 2012, glassblowing, 30 x 21 x 16 cm.

  • The Pillar I, 1/5, 2018, C-print, 87 x 57 cm.

    The Pillar I, 1/5, 2018, C-print, 87 x 57 cm.

  • Rift M7, 2017, ink and burning on paper, 153 x 133 cm.

    Rift M7, 2017, ink and burning on paper, 153 x 133 cm.

  • Rift M5, 2017, ink and burning on paper, 165 x 133 cm.

    Rift M5, 2017, ink and burning on paper, 165 x 133 cm.

The German-Syrian artist Ali Kaaf (1977, Oran, Argelia) is a global commuter who travels from one world to another: his artistic expression is informed by the traditions of European and Arabic cultures alike. Whether experienced in Syria, the USA, Beirut or in Berlin, the artist’s various lifeworlds coalesce within the often archaic suggestion of his primordially unique pictorial language. Ali Kaaf has been dedicated to working with the medium of paper and the (non-) colour black, in all imaginable nuances. In his Rift series, he aims, for example, at locating the terms for separation and conditions to reunification by juxtaposing two layers of paper (Bütten), interlacing them to an extent through pointed tearing or cauterisation. He breaks apart forms to achieve new spatial structures that engender empty spaces, creating room for new thought. His biographical background is thus analogously expanded, and the focus is guided toward philosophical concerns: ‘I have been searching, with my spots, for depth this whole time,’ says Kaaf with regard to his ink works. His pieces constitute investigations into the borders of controllability and the properties of the materials he works with: whereas glass is a substance with which he experiments as adeptly as he does with his more typical medium of paper, so too are the mediums of photography and video.

                                               

Ali Kaaf

1977
Syrian, born in Oran, Algeria
lives and works in Berlin

    
Exposiciones individuales (selección)/selected solo exhibitions

2018
„Dins un garbell no es pot guardar el sol“, Galeria Maior Palma, Spain

2016
„Box of Pain“, Video- und Audio Rauminstallation im/at Kühlhaus Berlin
„The Colour of Water is the Colour of its Vessel“, The Bumiller Collection, Berlin
„Unsilenced”, InSpace Curatorial at the Pacific Felt Factory, San Francisco, USA

2015
„Ali Kaaf – Papier und Glas“, Kunsthaus Langenberg – Alldiekunst, Velbert, Germany

2014
„RISS“ (mit/with Said Baalbaki), C&Kunterwegs Galerie, Berlin
“Scherben Mantra”, Bomb Gallery, Mostar, Bosnien/Bosnia

2013
“Mihrab”, Moontower Foundation, Bad König-Zell, Germany
“Paper and Glass”, Salon Neucologne, Berlin

2012
“Hollowing Light”, Custer County Art & Heritage Center, Miles City, USA

2010
“Fragile Strength”, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, USA
“Gubar”, Gallery Rafia, Damascus, Syrien/Syria

2009
“Eclipse”, Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch, Roma

2008
“Oh nein Oh”, Gallery Naprzeciw, Poznan, Polen/Poland
“RAS RAS/Der Schwarze Garten”, Galerie Sakamoto Contemporary, Berlin

2007
„Schwarz“, Galerie Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

2006
“Ali Kaaf, Discovery Planet”, Solidere, Beirut
“Ali Kaaf, Khan Ashad-Bacha”, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Syrien Damaskus, Syrien/Syria

2004
“Aswad”, Darat al Funun, Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan 

Exposiciones colectivas (selección)/selected group exhibitions

2017
“Syria: Into the Light”, Atassi Foundation, At Concrete – AISerkal Avenue, Dubai

2016
“The Red Gaze”, curated by A.S.  Bruckstein Çoruh , Zilberman Gallery Berlin
“As If, At Home” Artists in Europe, curated by Juriaan Benschop, BOX Freiraum, Berlin
“Clearly Ambigous”, SMAC, Berlin

2015
„Mixed Pickles“, C&Kunterwegs Galerie, Berlin
„Ortstermin mit Leoni Wirth – Modelle und Entwürfe aus dem Atelier von Leoni Wirth und zeitgenössische Positionen zu Abstraktion und Moderne, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany
“Living with endangered Languages in the information age”, Root Division, San Francisco “Hidden Treasures“ – I AMsterdam you BErlin, Sankt-Johannes-Evangelist-Kirche, Berlin

2014
“Be my guest”, Galerie E.G.P, Paris
“Kunststoff Syrien 2014“, Forum Factory, Berlin
„Scherben Mantra“, official selection, Alfilm - Arab Filmfestival, Berlin 2013

2013
„Syrian Diaries“, Korridor No. 33, Kopenhagen, Dänemark/Denmark
“SyriArt, Institut du Monde Arabe”, Paris

2012
„Kunststoff Syrien“, Forum Factory, Berlin
„Maribor Project - Rebecca Horn and Guests”, Contemporary Art Museum, Maribor, Slowenien/Slovenia
“Arrivi e Partenze 2012“, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona, Italien/Italy

2010
“Moontower Foundation”, Bad König-Zell, Gemany
„FestArte”, Video Art Festival, (Section OFF), MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roma
“Spiegel im Spiegel“, Horb am Neckar, Germany
„Glass Works”, Global Health Equity Foundation, San Francisco, USA

2009
„Taswir – Islamische Bildwelten und Moderne“, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
„Ode“, Kommunale Galerie Berlin, Berlin

2008
„Rites of Passage“, Galería Maior, Pollença, Spanien/Spain

2007
„Flowing Times“, Galerie Schüppenhauer, Köln
„Back and Forth”, Villa Grisebach, Berlin
“Château Ivre“, Schloss Sacrow, kuratiert von/curated by Rebecca Horn, Potsdam, Germany

2005
„Haus im Körper“, Galerie Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
„Durchzug im Löwenpalais“, Stiftung Starke, Löwenpalais, Berlin

2003
„213“, UdK Berlin

2002
„UdK - Beaux Arts”, Sciences Politiques, Saint-Germain, Paris
„Montags“, Klasse Marwan 1977-2002, UdK Berlin

Colecciones / Collections

- The Khalid Shoman Foundation Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan
- Collection Solidere Beirut, Lebanon
- MAXXI - Nationalmuseum für die Kunst des XXI. Jahrhunderts, Rom
- Almyra Communications, San Francisco
- Moontower Foundation, Frankfurt am Main
- Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin
- Peter-Raue-Sammlung, Berlin
and international private collections