Jameel Arts Centre holds together a series of tours and workshops for teens. The workshops feature a guided tour of the galleries and a discovery journey of artworks followed by creative hands-on activities, unique to each visit and led by artists and educators.

Sessions are free-to-attend with advance registration required. Register by emailing learning@artjameel.org. Limited spaces are available.

Led by Malda Smadi this workshop features an experimental session where students partner up and take turns drawing portraits of each other in 15-minute intervals, then swapping again for another round. Using acrylic paint in monochrome, the aim of this session focusses on creating fluid, expressive and confident strokes while exploring personal expression and stylistic approaches to art making.

Students will unearth a very personal and honest method when visually examining the person in front of them. They will have an understanding of the effects of representation through the choice of colour, its values, scale and detail. They will learn to perceive the discreet, the subtle and the obvious in a person’s persona and allow those conclusions to take over the painting.

This method of portrait-making is partly inspired by Alice Neel who used dark paint to create the outlines of her figures in an unplanned approach resulting in distorted proportions and bold expressions that made her work super evocative.

Key workshop takeaways focus on looking at art but also on making and reflecting.

Malda Smadi moved with her family to the UAE in 1990 where she studied Visual Communication at the American University in Dubai (BFA, 2008). She has been granted a year-long fellowship in Abu Dhabi, UAE with the Salama Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship (2016-17), and is a recipient of the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award, 1st place, Fine Arts category (2016). Her professional background includes graphic design, writing and advertising. Malda’s art practice explores ideas around the body, the female gender, nature in an urban environment, and words through the mediums of painting, fabrics and sculpture.

Teen’s tour and workshop
Saturday, July 13, 2019
10:00 – 13:00
Ages: 13-16