Art4You Gallery shows green light to red colour in illuminating show
- Last updated: May 31, 2025 | 10:14
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
‘Seeing RED’, curated by Jesno Jackson, co-founder of Art4You Gallery, was an exhibition held recently at Mehromah Art Gallery, Dubai. It celebrated the colour red, featuring 45 artworks by 30 multi-national artists, who explored themes of emotion, culture and identity, through various mediums.
Guests included Yaqoob Al Ali, Dr. Najat Makki, Ahmed Al Mahmoud, Khulood Al Jabri, and other notable figures from the UAE’s art and cultural landscape.
The week-long exploration of the emotional, cultural and symbolic power of the colour red – one of the most intense shades in the visual language of art – showcased a tapestry of interpretations in that colour, from fiery passion to quiet resilience.
Jesno envisioned Seeing RED as a platform for artists to delve into the expressive depths of red; she termed it an “evocative colour”. In tones of crimson, scarlet, rose and burgundy, among other shades, the artworks conveyed themes of love, rage, transformation, danger, strength, and healing.
“Red is not just a hue; it’s an emotion, a presence, and through this exhibition, we aimed to highlight its duality on how it can be fierce yet tender, bold yet intimate,” said Jesno. The exhibited works spanned a range of styles and mediums, from abstract expressionism and mixed media, to collage and figurative painting. Each artist was invited to explore the meaning of red in their own visual language; it resulted in a rich dialogue across pieces that varied in technique, but were united in emotion.
The show opened with the ceremonial unveiling of an artwork by guest artist Khulood Al Jabri, followed by the inauguration by Yaqoob Al Ali and Ahmed Al Mahmoud. The event also enjoyed the presence of pioneering Emirati artist Dr. Najat Makki, Lara Tabet, Claudia Pinto, Moosa Al Halyan, Dr. Edyta Skibinska and an array of other guests from across the cultural, diplomatic, and creative industries of the UAE.
They took earnest time to walk through the exhibition, often pausing to take in and comment on the radiance of the works. There were conversations around symbolism, technique and the artists’ personal connections to red.
Artists like Khulood Al Jabri, Eric Kwadwo Afranie, Andrew Scanlan, Aliyeh Barazandeh, Dina Khataan, Banashree Sengupta and Reem Al Subiy, delivered impactful works, reflecting red’s many personas, from energetic and rebellious to the raw and romantic.
The audience too was deeply engaged with the artworks, sharing emotional reflections, decoding symbolism, and connecting with the layered meanings of each piece. Works by artists like Sofia Ali, Mouza Al Darmaki, Roa Al Madani, Shaf Beypore, Reinier Chirino, Kumar Chadayamangalam, Thomas Antony, Mustafa Pracha, Salma Barakat, Neethu George, Jaimee Felysse Reyes, Avigyan Bhattacharya, Zuliya Kuprina, Raveendran Valanchery, Rheanne Louise, Yashi Khatanhar, Nithin Umesh, Natalia Vityugova, Krish, Christine Leonard, Manoo Mittal, Ekaterina Sholomova and Anuj Sarkar, were also on view. They had passionately poured their creativity into the theme of the show.
Each artist explored red in their own way, showing its many aspects, from bold, brave, romantic and fierce, to its healing qualities. The closing ceremony included a guided art walk led by the curator and dignitaries, along with a certificate distribution, that acknowledged the artists. “This was a dream project,” said Art4You Gallery co-founder, Rengi Cherian. “I wanted to create a space where a single colour could carry an entire spectrum of human emotion. Red gave us that voice.” “We are thankful to the artists, guests, media partners and supporters who helped bring this vision to life. Art4You Gallery continues to build bridges through storytelling in art,” said Jesno.
Based in the UAE, Art4You Gallery is a platform with a mandate to foster cross-cultural dialogue and individual and collaborative creativity. With a focus on curated experiences and global partnerships and ventures, the gallery brings together emerging and established artists for interactive, artistic engagement. “Red,” notes shop.zenartsupplies on its blog, “was widely used by artists in the Paleolithic age, since it was easily obtainable in nature. The prehistoric cave paintings are a perfect example, in which they used red ochre. It can be found in Altamira, Spain, dating between 15,000 and 16,500 BCE. The most famous one is the bison painting.”
“The colour red appears everywhere in our visual environment: in the sky, on the ground, in plants and animals, even on our own bodies. The reason our blood is red is because it contains haemoglobin,” says ideelart.com blog. “In the Renaissance period,” says artsandcollections.com, “bright reds were used to draw attention to the most important figures in a painting ... In Asia, the colour red is commonly associated with luck and happiness, and is also the colour of traditional Indian and Chinese bridal outfits.
“In the Indian subcontinent, women put red dots on their forehead or scalp to show that they are married ... Red has been used as a colour of war and rebellion for many historic events. In ancient Roman mythology, Mars the god of war was associated with the colour red, hence why the ‘red planet’, coloured by iron oxide, was named after him.” Some of the highest-earning paintings on record heavily feature the colour red, such as Munch’s The Scream (1893) and also some of Modigliani’s most expensive works. No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red, 1951) by Mark Rothko sold for $186m in 2014 — the artist was known for the use of the colour red in his abstract paintings, using it to inspire deep emotions.