Background
Abdul Qader Al Rais was born in 1951 in Dubai. At the age of six, after his father died, mother sent him to live in Kuwait with his sister and her husband. He stayed with his sister until he was 18.
Abdul Qader Al Rais was born in 1951 in Dubai. At the age of six, after his father died, mother sent him to live in Kuwait with his sister and her husband. He stayed with his sister until he was 18.
He left Dubai when he was six to study in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government was supporting art and they gave him materials. At that time, his teachers were the masters – Raphael, Da Vinci and Rembrandt. He couldn’t read English so he just looked at their pictures in art books. Later, he learned from Monet and Pissarro because he loves impressionism. He studied at grammar school in Kuwait. In 1974, he returned to Dubai. Abdul Qader earned a bachelor's degree in Sharia Law from the United Arab Emirates University in 1982.
In 1974, Abdul Qader Al Rais worked at the Ministry of Labour in Dubai as a labour inspector. He began his artistic career even before the UAE was officially formed. He started seriously as a painter when he was 14. His first exhibition was the spring exhibition in Kuwait in 1965. Later he organized a series of personal exhibitions in Beirut, Washington, Germany and Czechoslovakia. He represented the United Arab Emirates in many fine art galleries as Casablanca, Kuwait, Riyadh, London, Madrid, Geneva, Vienna, Seoul, Warsaw, Paris and Athens.
His artistic talents gradually evolved slowly through the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century. Although he came to the art as a hobby, but later took a decision to embrace professionalism becoming the first professional artist in the history of art in the United Arab Emirates. Soon Abdul Qader Al Rayes became the most outstanding artist, and his name is in the famous arts exhibitions in the UAE and the GC Countries. A pioneer, he remains at the forefront of the Gulf visual arts sector, continuing to develop his own style while mentoring the next generations.
Abdul Qader Al Rayes was a founding member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society and served as Vice President. He activated his participation in all arts assemblies between 1980 -1995. Al Rais has been holding exhibitions worldwide since 1995. He took part in more than 50 technical personal and collective exhibitions inside and outside the UAE. During that time, which included many years of experimentation, he has been developing a distinct style. Today, no collection of contemporary Arab art is complete without an Al Rais work. He has been exhibited regionally and internationally.
As a recognition of his ongoing, renewable and permanent artistic contributions in the local, Arab and international arbitration commissions, the artist Abdul Qader Al Rayes won a set of gold and silver awards and certificates of appreciation at the Arab and international exhibitions, and got the State appreciation Award of Sciences, Arts and Letters in the field of painting and drawing in 2006.
His art has been praised for its accurate depiction of nature and for its innate energy that captures the essence and spirit of the landscape that he loves to paint. Much of his work also contains references to traditional architecture such as doors and windows that have become as symbolic within his paintings as his signature floating squares, which occupy much of his later work. The use of small floating squares is a signature style carrying through Al Rais’ works.
In 2015, his artwork was used to decorate carriages of the Dubai Metro, as part of the Dubai Arts Season.
In 2016, Al Rais participated in ‘Portrait of a Nation, one of the largest exhibitions of UAE contemporary art to date at the Abu Dhabi Festival, organised by the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF). His work is part of The ADMAF Art Collection and is featured in the ADMAF publication ‘The Art of the Emirates’.
His work has been presented in more than 30 solo exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe and United States as well as many international group exhibitions, including 1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, UAE Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, Meridian International Center and UAE Embassy, Washington, D.C. (2014). His work is also part of the collections of the British Museum, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Kuwait Museum of Modern Art; Sharjah Art Museum and Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman.
Quotations:
“My talent is something I have no control over,” he says. “It is a gift from God.”
“Every artist should have his unique traits and style, so that the beholder could recognize the artwork without having to see his or her initials.”
“I don’t merely draw doors and old houses, but rather embrace the abstract style as a kind of challenge.”
“Once a man is determined and has the passion for any goal, he will definitely attain it.”
"By 1968, I had developed my own style… when I am painting I look for that beauty. Sometimes you find it in landscapes, sometimes in a piece of wood such as a door. When I put something on the canvas, I try to bring out the beauty; to emphasise it.”