Kuwaiti artist Ghadah Al Kandari is set to present her first solo exhibition in Bahrain, bringing to life deeply personal emotions of love and loss.
Titled ‘Maryam’s Sons’, the expo will be inaugurated tomorrow at Folk Art Space in Sehla. It features a collection of abstract and figurative works that reflect the artist’s emotional and creative journey.
The mass communication specialist and mother-of-three lost her father last month – just months after her grandson was born in September 2025. Both her grandmother and daughter-in-law are named Maryam, and hence the title.
Learning of her father’s failing health, followed soon after by the news that she was to become a grandmother, placed the artist on a profound emotional rollercoaster. “My life teetered between glee and despair, hope and desperation and sadness and joy,” Ms Al Kandari told the GDN.
“One would be born, the other would die. For almost a year, the two events unfolded in tandem and the parallels between them were uncanny. It was emotional to see one life being created and the other one leaving. They existed in the same world for 62 days,” she added.
Departure, the painting before Ms Al Kandari’s father passed
The 56-year-old also spoke about the complex relationship she shared with her father, which made the grieving process even more intense.
“My relationship with my father was not the easiest but that didn’t mean I did not love him. At some point, I even wondered if I deserved to mourn him. It was all very complex.”
This emotional turbulence is reflected in one of the paintings in the exhibition, a work that is markedly different from her usual style.
Seven by the artist
“The day before he died, I worked on a painting that’s very different from the rest. It was a colourful abstract and I remember waking up and deciding that I was going to turn it into a figurative painting.
“I put some music on and just went all out. It took a direction of its own and it was almost as if I could not control it – I could not replicate it even if I tried. There was crying, dancing and moving, and it just was pure energy,” explained the self-taught artist, who believes that art came to her naturally.
An autobiographical piece at the exhibition
Right from the time she picked up a pencil at the tender age of three, painting has been her happy place. Apart from art classes during high school and later a brief period of study in New York, Ms Al Kandari describes herself largely as a student of life – a perspective that has shaped her artistic practice. She was born in New Delhi, India, and has lived in many countries throughout her childhood as her father was a diplomat.
Further illustrating how her observations of her father filter into her practice, she spoke about a painting in which the subject’s hands are positioned to suggest the number eight. Curiously, the work is titled Seven.
“Those were his hand movements when he was lying down in the hospital bed. Even though there are eight fingers up, to me it is Seven. It reflects my father, mother, four siblings and me,” she said, adding that while the subject in the painting is female, it could be reflective of any individual.
She described her style as autobiographical.
“It is a by-product of my days,” she said.
“My paintings are divided – I have abstract and figurative but they are both connected to each other. I do not usually use symbolism in my work – I am literal. Many of the things that you will see (in the exhibition) are quite literal. I am very much a numbers person. Not like a mathematician but I look at patterns. It is important for me that things are complete.”
Maryam’s Sons will run until February 26.
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