The two artists here come from different backgrounds – Nasser Al Salem is Saudi, Josh Rowell is British – but both use language as the core of their artistic practice, albeit exploring and juxtaposing concepts of communication in diverse ways. Rowell presents us with a language that explores and reshapes information, and celebrates the hand-made in a time that is increasingly being enveloped by the virtual; Al Salem reinvents Islamic art in non-conventional mixed media forms to test its conceptual potential.
The exhibition includes Al Salem’s first ever NFT, and the first NFT of Rowell’s Virtually Fragile series. These provide a unique angle for crypto-communication, in that viewers and collectors are able to appreciate not only the digital possibilities of the work but also the tangible potential of both the physical and digital being showcased side by side.
Above: Josh Rowell, Virtually Fragile #14 (study) (2020)
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