Palestinian artist Reem R.’s ‘Lilies’ droop with loss, bloom with resistance

Hunna Art, in collaboration with Bayt AlMamzar, is currently hosting ‘Lilies’, the debut solo exhibition of Palestinian artist Reem R. (b. 1995). On view from December 13 to January 5, 2025 at Bayt AlMamzar in Dubai, the show presents a multilayered body of work that interrogates the interplay between beauty, memory, and resistance – particularly relevant due to the ongoing strife in Palestine. With ‘Lilies’, Reem R. (her art name) transforms her canvases into spaces of poetic inquiry, where the symbolic beauty of lilies dissolves into “lies”, challenging viewers to confront illusions inside the imagery and the unfolding narratives.

Drawing on her personal experiences and the collective memory of Palestine, her works explore themes of nostalgia, identity and resilience through hyperreal oil paintings that blur the boundaries of reality and illusion. The pain is the reality, and its cessation now increasingly an illusion. But the artist does not let go, despite circumstances.

‘Lilies’ is an artistic and poetic act of resistance, where beauty is turned into a mirror reflecting not just what is seen, but also what is hidden. Reem R. challenges us to look beyond the surface, to question the authenticity of what we see and believe (anyone thinking of biased media here?). Her paintings are not merely invitations: they demand and force us to remember, reckon, and to struggle against forgetting.

Reem R., as a Palestinian visual artist, is uniquely inspired and influenced by daily observations, human interactions, personal experiences, and memories. Through contrastingly vivid colour palettes and determinedly composed artworks, she depicts her lived world, intertweaving personal symbols and cultural references. Her pictures ask viewers to engage their imagination, and come up with their own interpretations.

Reem R. looks at the camera.

She received a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Design from the American University of Sharjah in 2017. Her work has been exhibited in the Arabian Peninsula, notably in Qatar and in the UAE, and internationally (Croatia, France, Morocco, South Africa, and Spain). Hunna Art invites you to discover ‘Lilies’ both in person and online, where the works will be available exclusively through the following link: Lilies by Reem R.

Hunna Art is an independent contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by Océane Sailly. It is dedicated to the new generation of women artists from or connected to the Arabian Peninsula. “Lilies,” Sailly says, “with their dazzling beauty — trumpet-shaped blooms, strong stems, and intoxicating scent — have long symbolised beauty and purity, but also rebirth and transience.

In Reem R.’s work, these flowers appear as a haunting motif, rendered with such hyperreal precision that their perfume seems to linger in the air ... Yet, as with so much of her art, this is an illusion. Beneath their alluring surface lies a quiet defiance — a refusal to let beauty obscure deeper truths: the fragility of memory, the ache of nostalgia and loss, and the resilience of a collective spirit.”

Pointing to one section, Sailly says that “the last series of works presented in ‘Lilies’ is inspired by the drawings of children from the artist’s homeland, Palestine. A little girl (Dima), a standing flower (Open, o flower), a smiling fish (Feel safer), a woman picking up oranges (As the tree) ... at first nothing seems to differentiate these playful and innocent drawings from those of children elsewhere. Yet, as the layers unfold, they reveal profound grief and injustice - mourning trees and a house on fire, an angry and scared child in the corner of a house, transforming childlike themes into potent vessels of mourning and anger.”

In her essay, Malak Elghuel, Libyan multidisciplinary artist and also a graduate of the American University of Sharjah, finds that “here is presented a world suspended between reality and illusion — a world fragmented, crumbled, examined, and reimagined. In this world, if nostalgia could be bottled, it would smell of oranges and lilies, so fleeting, and so tender, it would smell of a home held close to one’s heart, so far, yet so close. In Reem R.’s hands, fragments become artifacts, crumpled and torn but given new life, each piece a reflection of her desire to preserve what might otherwise be lost ... her use of illusion is not just playful, but a deliberate effort to peel back the constructed facades of our reality.” (Oranges are a recurring theme in the works).

Among the places Reem R. has exhibited her works are Boundless/Binding in LA, Hunna Art, USA; Menart Fair Paris, Hunna Art, France; The Sky The Moon Lost, Qatar; Hunna/Elles at Millon Paris, Hunna Art, France; Elevision Media feature on screens around Dubai, Hunna Art; One Book One Doha Campaign for Qatar Reads, Qatar; Doha International Book Fair, Qatar; Loves Me Loves Me Not Exhibition, Croatia; Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah; Festival De Cinema Girona, Spain; Ekurhuleni International Film Festival, South Africa and the 23rd International Video Art Festival in Casablanca, Morocco.

She has been selected for commissions by Fables in Fashion M7, Qatar; D’reesha Performing Arts Festival, Qatar; One Book One Doha Campaign for Qatar Reads, Qatar and Doha International Book Fair, Qatar. Bayt AlMamzar is an independent art space founded as a response to the needs of the local contemporary creative community.

It welcomes innovative, experimental, and collaborative approaches, motivated by the belief in constructive critical dialogue and the free exchange of opinions, Bayt AlMamzar currently houses artist studios, residency programmes, exhibitions, public programmes, a growing library collection, plus more.