Safwan Dahoul paints dreams. But in his latest works, the dream chamber has become a box with no way out.
For Safwan Dahoul, everything begins with a space. A bare, almost abstract space, devoid of any narrative context. And yet, it is there that everything unfolds. In the exhibition The Eye: An Aperture Into the Soul , presented at the Ayyam Gallery in Dubai, this space narrows, closes in, until it becomes a veritable mental chamber. The exhibition also features experimental works shown in the Emirates for the first time, following their presentation at the artist's first institutional exhibition in China.
Since the late 1980s, Dahoul has been developing his Dream series , a collection of monochrome works in which a recurring female figure traverses various states of solitude, waiting, and inner tension. In recent pieces, this presence seems more constrained than ever. The space that once housed her—formerly open, almost undefined—has been transformed into a closed structure, a kind of box where the body bends, folds, and adapts.
In Dream 294 (2026), the figure is entirely curled up, reduced to a compact form with fluid lines. The limbs intertwine to form an almost abstract mass, placed against a dark background like an object whose purpose has been forgotten. The body no longer unfolds: it curls in on itself, as if to occupy as little space as possible.
This motif of withdrawal runs throughout the exhibition. In Dream 293 (2026), the figure sits on a black geometric block, leaning forward, back rounded, head almost buried in its own knees. Nothing distracts the eye: no setting, no object. Only the tension of the body persists, like a silent response to the space that encloses it.
Even more unsettling, Dream 279 (2025) literally fragments the figure. The body is dismembered, the face detached from the torso in a composition with a Cubist impulse. This dissociation creates an impression of instability, almost of unreality. The subject is no longer unified; it becomes an assemblage, a precarious construction.
In some works, confinement becomes almost architectural. Dream 288 (2026, 120 x 100 cm) presents a monumental face, eyes closed, framed by a box with gray walls that draw it inward. The scale amplifies the feeling of suffocation: the face fills the space, but cannot escape it. Protected and imprisoned at the same time.
In Dream 281 (2025, 200 x 220 cm), the figure lies reclining in the upper part of the composition, arms folded against its body. Below, a series of concentric black rectangles form a visual abyss, as if the body were suspended above a bottomless void. The composition accentuates the sense of distance, the impression of a body held within a structure that transcends it.
The palette, composed almost exclusively of blacks, whites, and grays, contributes to this suspended atmosphere. It erases all anecdote, all distraction, leaving only the essential: the body, space, the tension between the two. This economy of means reinforces the power of the images, their ability to capture an emotion without naming it.
Born in 1961 in Hama, Syria, Dahoul trained under leading modernists at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Damascus University before earning a doctorate from the Higher Institute of Visual Arts in Mons, Belgium. Returning to Syria, he taught and played a central role in the Damascus art scene, becoming a vital link between modern and contemporary Arab art. His works are now held in numerous public and private collections, including the Arab World Institute in Paris and the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah.
What remains, ultimately, is a persistent feeling of in-betweenness. Between wakefulness and sleep, between presence and disappearance, between protection and confinement. Dahoul offers no answer. He establishes a condition. And perhaps this is where the power of these images lies: in their capacity to contain, in a single movement, the possibility of refuge and that of suffocation.
Practical information
Safwan Dahoul — The Eye: An Aperture Into the Soul
From 16 May to 4 July 2026
Ayyam Gallery
B11, Alserkal Avenue, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Opening hours: Monday–Friday 11am–19pm, Saturday 12pm–18pm
