Tamara Al Samerraei

Love Story

section of the installation, dimensions of the section: 150 x 230 cm, 2015

photo: Mansour Dib

Love Story (2015) is a composition of different narrative elements: a compulsive repetition of a recurring monster, a confrontation, a dream that is about to be interrupted and a triumphant cuddle with an animal. The monster is a friend and a foe, a subject of subjugation where its predatory nature is both forgotten and forgiven. There is a constant duality within this dynamic and an uncertainty of the movement to come. The work illustrates a form of relationship with another: flirtatious yet fearful.

Sara El Adl

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Born in Kuwait in 1977, Tamara Al Samerraei is a painter who lives and works in Beirut. She received a BA in Fine Arts from the Lebanese American University in Beirut in 2002 and completed the inaugural year of the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan (2011–2012), Beirut. Her solo exhibitions include Let Me Stay a Little Longer, Marfa’ Projects, Beirut (2015–2016), Make Room for Me, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2014); Fleeting Fences (2011) and Something White (2008), Agial Art Gallery, Beirut. Her most recent project was a joint exhibition with photographer Fouad ElKoury entitled Play the Possum, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2016). She has participated in several group and duo exhibitions including Home Beirut Sounding the Neighbours, MAXXI Museum, Rome (2017); Tamawuj-Sharjah Biennial 13, Sharjah (2017); Complicity, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2016); On Water, Rosemary and Mercury in Homeworks 7, Beirut (2015); 25 Ans De Creativité Arabe, Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012); All About Beirut, White Box, Munich (2010); Exposure, Beirut Art Center, Beirut; Radius of Art project, Fladernbunker, Kiel, (2008); Shoe Box, Dar Al Funoon, Kuwait (2007). Most recently Al Samerraei completed a nine-month residency at the Cité International Des Arts in Paris (2014).