Fragility and Hope

Nearly two decades after its founding, Ayyam Gallery presents Wavering Hope, a collective exhibition marking a turning point in Syrian artistic narrative. The show brings together twelve artists who, through diverse languages, address the theme of hope as an unstable and layered sentiment emerging from the ruins of a conflict spanning over twenty years. The exhibition's title reflects the ambivalent nature of hope in the Syrian context: a force of resistance that has often proven ephemeral in the face of renewed suffering. The displayed works testify to how, despite the destruction of homes and institutions, art has persisted as an act of silent defiance and memory preservation. Among the featured artists, Elias Izoli paints figures cloaked in melancholy, alluding to the kidnappings and torture that have marked the country. Thaier Helal, known for abstraction, turns to figuration, transforming his canvases into tools of visual resistance and political commentary. Abdul-Karim Majdal Al-Beik moves away from traditional representation, using texture and unconventional materials to explore anguish and displacement. Othman Moussa, usually focused on serene still lifes, employs satire to confront political realities and cultural absurdities. Nihad Al-Turk creates surreal and violent worlds, evoking ruins and wounds as embodiments of a psyche hollowed out by conflict. Abdalla Al Omari, through his personal experience of exile, highlights collective trauma and individual displacement. Safwan Dahoul captures death and devastation with surreal intensity, transforming real massacres into dreamlike compositions that straddle memory and imagination. Kais Salman turns inward, his gestural, blood-tinged brushstrokes capturing inner turmoil and unspoken grief. Tammam Azzam, through layering and experimentation, speaks of personal loss and the collapse of physical space and memory. Mohannad Orabi portrays figures caught in expressions of deep sorrow, their faces marked by isolation and distortion, reflecting the surrounding suffering. Khaled Takreti and Yasmine Al Awa use inanimate objects to personify conflict, turning everyday items into silent witnesses of the battles of the past fifteen years. The exhibition serves as a collective meditation on survival and a record of artistic persistence. Each work invites confrontation with the complexity of healing after trauma, portraying a homeland oscillating between destruction and rebirth, mourning and hope. In Syria, hope is never straightforward: it is layered with doubt, shadowed by memory, and always vulnerable. Yet it endures. And in the hands of these artists, it becomes visible, transformed into images, forms, and gestures that challenge us to remember, reflect, and imagine something beyond despair.