Abu Dhabi Art: giving wings to young talent

Hamad Al Falasi’s Arab Pacman. Courtesy Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority

From a retro-chic Pac-Man to monochrome falcon feathers, the six winning Abu Dhabi Art Wings designs this year are quirky, colourful and fun.

The annual Abu Dhabi Art competition supports young, UAE-based talent, who are called on to create designs based on the logo’s distinctive “wing” shape. The winning art is featured on merchandise – mugs, bags, postcards – for sale at Artyfact, the shop at Manarat Al Saadiyat, during the festival.

The 2015 finalists – five of whom are women – were chosen from a large field of ­candidates.

Aleya Al Hammadi, a graphic designer who studied at Zayed University, created a black-and-white version where the logo is patterned in falcon feathers, two of which are softly falling.

“I chose falcons because they are so important to our culture,” she said. “And I don’t see them as often as I used to.” She drew the falcon feathers in Illustrator, testing colours against the yellow used by Abu Dhabi Art.

The Pac-Man logo is by Hamad Rahma Al Falasi, a young artist whose practice includes digital photography, calligraphy and self-portraiture.

In his design, the four ghosts of the Pac-Man video game descend down the line of one of the wings, straight into Pac-Man’s open mouth.

Amna Al Suwaidi’s version is similarly tech-inspired: her fanciful design shows a pearl-diver reaching for a vivid pink shell against a background of sand and sky.

Marwa Ahmed Al Maskari used Islamic motifs alongside a seated female figure, while Marwa Ahmed Al Shehhi paired a geometric design with a portrait of Sheikh Zayed, set as if on a postage stamp.

She appropriated the patterns from an Emirati bank note from the early 1970s that she found online – a design chosen more because she liked it than to comment on the activity of buying and selling that defines an art fair.

This was Al Maskari’s first contest. “At first, I refused to enter the competition,” she says, “because I was afraid they wouldn’t like my design. But when I was selected, I was so happy. I told my family and it was a really nice moment.”

• Abu Dhabi Art runs from November 18 to 21 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Island. Visit www.abudhabiart.ae