Anatomy of healing: Efie Gallery diagnoses curative power of time
- Last updated: May 20, 2025 | 09:44
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
Efie Gallery, Dubai, has announced ‘time heals, just not quick enough...’ an exhibition curated by Ose Ekore featuring works by contemporary artists across generations — Samuel Fosso (b. 1962), Aida Muluneh (b. 1974), Kelani Abass (b. 1978), Abeer Sultan (b. 1999) and Sumayah Fallatah (b. 2000).
The second exhibition to take place in the gallery’s new Alserkal Avenue location, the group show of film and photography (June 1 – July 30) offers visual narratives that encourage reflection on healing, growth and understanding, through the passage of time. Sumayah Fallatah’s work weaves personal and family narratives with broader themes of race, migration and the African diaspora in the Arab world.
In ‘I became you, so I lost myself’ (2024), she layers family photographs, archival images, indigo-dyed textiles and red thread, to reflect on the emotional toll of cultural assimilation and the grief of migration.
Her video ‘Fruits of Meditation’ (2023) revisits a childhood memory of her father’s meditative ritual — reciting fruit names while making squeezing motions — captured through two parallel videos: one of her father selecting fruit in deep meditation and the other of Fallatah attempting to understand his practice. Abeer Sultan’s ‘Agua Viva’ explores marine life through personal history, inspired by her family’s migration from West Africa to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. Using self-portraiture, she constructs a new narrative, intertwining hidden geographies and overlooked histories.
Through collages, photography and moving images of jellyfish, corals and shells, Sultan creates fictional artifacts and lost data, shaping a new mythology for future generations of the African diaspora in the Arabian Peninsula. Kelani Abass merges history, memory and technology, drawing influence from his father’s letterpress printing company. His mixed-media works layer photography, text and found objects, blending mechanical processes with traditional painting techniques, to explore time’s passage and identity’s fluidity.
Samuel Fosso challenges identity and representation through experimental self-portraits embodying various personas. On view are 20 works from his 70’s Lifestyle series (1974 – 1978). The artist’s first exposure to photography outside the Central African Republic came through magazine images brought by visiting American Peace Corps volunteers. Captivated by the fashion and style of African Americans and West African music icon Prince Nico Mbarga, he sought to channel both influences through stylised self-portraits in his studio. Aida Muluneh’s photographs subvert conventional representations of African women through a bold, signature visual language rooted in surrealism and Ethiopian cultural motifs.
Her striking compositions, often rendered in vivid primary colours, employ face painting, masks and ceremonial garments, to explore the intersection of personal and political narratives. Muluneh reframes narratives of womanhood and underscores photography as a powerful tool in reshaping Africa’s global image. Ose Ekore said that “in an era shaped by urgency, ‘time heals, just not quick enough...’ invites viewers to slow down and reconsider their relationship with time. The curatorial direction emerged organically, guided by the themes the participating artists have been thoughtfully exploring in their practices.”
He is a Nigerian curator based in the UAE, whose practice explores the intersections of African histories, contemporary art and public engagement. His work serves as a platform for investigating and documenting the relationship between public art and community, fostering inclusive and accessible cultural discourse. Ekore has collaborated with a wide range of artists and cultural institutions to commission and produce exhibitions, publications, public programmes and artist residencies. Central to his curatorial approach is a commitment to accessibility, ensuring that art remains open and engaging to diverse audiences. He is the co-founder of Bootleg Griot, a community-driven public library project currently in-residence in Efie Gallery’s Rekord Gallery, and a curatorial assistant at Sharjah Art Foundation.
“The term contemporary African art,” says Wikipedia, “implies a particular kind of art that has conquered, or, as some would say, has been absorbed by the international art world and art market since the 1980s. It was the time when the world became aware of art made in Africa by individual artists, thus breaking with the colonial tradition of assuming collective “ethnic” origins of so-called “tribal art”. Efie Gallery is a contemporary art gallery based in Dubai, specialising in the representation and advancement of artists of African origin, both from the African continent and its global diaspora. Since its inception in 2021, the opening of its permanent space in 2022 and its relocation from Al Khayat Avenue to Alserkal Avenue in 2025, the gallery has established itself as a global platform for some of Africa’s most significant artists.
Efie Gallery’s mandate is to enable and support cross-cultural exchange between Africa, the Middle East and beyond. In addition to its wide-ranging roster of artists and exhibitions, it operates a residency programme that facilitates collaborations with local artists, institutions and community members, supporting artists in the narrative and vision of their work. Part of Dubai’s Al Quoz Creative Zone, a global hub for creativity and entrepreneurship, Efie Gallery aims to create a vibrant ecosystem for contemporary African art in the UAE. Its space also displays the gallery founders’ collection of rare vinyl and shellac records from around the world, celebrating the intersection of art and music. Efie is the Twi word for ‘home’, addressing the notion of belonging and how it can be determined by culture, history and identity for communities across the world. Founded by Ghanaian family Valentina, Kwame and Kobi Mintah, Efie Gallery’s vision is to foster dialogue between African artists and the wider world.