Noon Arts Projects

Born in 1989 and originally from Misrata, Aimen Ajhani, aka Elbohly, is a self-taught Libyan street graffiti artist. In many ways, he represents the voice of the Libyan youth and their struggle. Inspired by the philosophy of the hip-hop subculture, he was part of an underground artistic scene in Tripoli, Libya where he first began spraying dissident images dating from before the February 2011 Revolution.

The Syrian Dima Nashawi is an artist who strongly believes that art goes hand in hand with social activism and is a powerful means for peace building and engaging with human rights. Although her art illustrations are very delicate, feminine, beautiful and intricate, they actually carry a very powerful message regarding Syria and the longing for return to her hometown of Damascus. Using smooth and curved lines in her illustrations, she attempts to simplify real stories and bring them closer to the audience.

Zaazoua draws her inspiration from personal wanderings, be they real or virtual and creates work that flirts with a trivial dream world and explores an alternative version of the society that she lives in. Enjoying the use of paradoxes, she looks at the complex relationship between the cultures of the East And West.

Matug Aborawi was born in 1967 in Libya and studied at the Faculty of Arts in Tripoli, graduating in 1993. He then went on to do a Masters and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Granada in Spain at the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Aborawi's work is of a highly conceptual nature with the use of dramatic and exotic colours. His paintings always reveal unusual shapes, portraits of nameless people and animals, as well as other poetic content.

Meryem Meg is a 25-year-old Algerian-Bulgarian artist with a multi-disciplinary background and a specialty in graphic design. Keen on the themes of fertility, birth and the cycles within nature, she draws upon North African and amazigh marks and symbols in her work. Creating optical illusions and movement through the lines, colours and geometric shapes, Meg’s aim is to impact on the mind and create a mystical experience for the viewer, as well as to empower women through her visual affirmations.

The British-Saudi Arabian Nasreen Shaikh Jamal Al Lail belongs to a number of different worlds that have formed the woman she has become today. With a master’s in Photography and the use of digital processes, she looks into identity, the negotiation of personal space as well as in dealing with the interactions between the contrasting collective cultural memories and how these may pose problems for the individual.

Yousef's emotional and sensitive side is directly reflected in his work. The images that emerge from his paintings have tremendous depth; and with his technique and choice of colours and textures, he accentuates that depth. This is an artist in full control of his medium and confident with bold strokes and experimentations to bring out his feelings onto the canvas.

Alla Abudabbus is a trained civil engineer who picked up graphic design as a hobby fifteen years ago. Since then he has been the director of the ‘Alalama’ marking company in Tripoli that focused on advertising and media and also the founder and creative director at ‘Bridge’ media and PR company. In the past four years in particular, he has been producing popular artwork that is relevant to the Libyan contemporary cultural scene and its place within the global consumerist culture. 

Born in Tripoli, 1973, she has received a formal education in ceramics and glass making at the School of Fine Arts and Media at the University of Tripoli. She then pursued a Masters in Ceramics at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Hadia describes herself as a ceramist and installation artist. As a matter of fact she has favored the latter since her Master’s at Cardiff.

Khuloud Elzwai was born in 1975 in Libya. She studied Classical Music and the Piano at the Faculty of Media and Arts at the University of Tripoli, graduating in 1998. 

Self-taught as an artist, she uses acrylic and oil on canvas. Her paintings are imagined in the abstract and approach strong emotional subjects that hold multi-layered meanings and are open to subjective interpretations. Khuloud's art also relays the value of personal memories, deep feelings like sadness, the consequences of sin and the experience of loss and departures. 

Najla Shawkat Fitouri's paintings focus on Libyan women with her colourful and dramatic interpretations of their lifestyle. Her work touches upon a constantly evolving female identity, reflecting on her personal and collective worries, as well as addressing the emotional pain at times experienced with moments of happiness.

Takwa Barnosa is a Libyan artist who is still studying for her bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the University of Tripoli, but whose artwork has already caused quite a stir. Talented and inventive, she fuses the Arabic calligraphy with different forms of mixed media. Utilising powerful newsworthy photographs that range in subject but concerning her home country, she writes over them with word messages to challenge the content of the story told within.

Yousef's emotional and sensitive side is directly reflected in his work. The images that emerge from his paintings have tremendous depth; and with his technique and choice of colours and textures, he accentuates that depth. This is an artist in full control of his medium and confident with bold strokes and experimentations to bring out his feelings onto the canvas.