An Internationally renowned calligrapher, an award-winning author and a young and upcoming artist will showcase their work at the 11th Elham Monthly Gathering this month. Mahmood Al Mulla is a founder member of the Bahrain Fine Arts Association and is considered one of the country’s finest calligraphers combining Arabic calligraphy with fine art. He has participated in many exhibitions locally, regionally and internationally including France, UK, Egypt and Lebanon. He also received several awards for his work. He will showcase some of his latest works and talk about his experience as a calligrapher and using calligraphy as an artistic outlet.

He will be joined by Ali Al Saeed, the author of the novel QuioxtiQ (2004) and the collection of short stories Moments (2006), both of which were national best-sellers. Ali worked as a journalist for two newspapers between 1998 and 2004. He currently contributes to several magazines including Ohlala! Arabia and has a weekly column in the Gulf Daily News. Ali’s work was published in numerous journals, magazines, anthologies and websites. He is an avid photographer and an aspiring filmmaker. Ali is the recipient of the Bahrain Outstanding Book of the Year Award and a founder member of Elham.

Ali, who has been working on two new novels and expects to publish his new book sometime later this year, will present a new piece for the first time to the public.

And the evening will also feature an exciting new Bahraini artist. Mariam Hadji, born in Bahrain in 1985, is currently based in Melbourne Australia She first discovered my talent at the age of 8 and ever since she has been practicing. After finishing school in Bahrain, she traveled to study in Dundee Scotland for two years and then transferred to Melbourne, Australia to continue her degree in Fine art in 2003 and has since been very active in the Melbourne art scene.

Mariam will conduct a presentation of her work and delve into her fascinating and original artistic techniques, theories and conceptualizations. Mariam is also featured in this issue of Ohlala.

Elham: The Creative Arts Group, provides a monthly forum for artistically minded people, and gives both expat and Bahraini artists traversing the creative spectrum a platform to showcase their work. In addition to monthly sessions at galleries and cafés, there are satellite events such as jamming evenings, photographers’ days out and various workshops.

The event will be held on Wednesday, February 27th from 7pm. A venue will be announced soon. For more information email: elhambahrain@yahoo.com or call Melissa on 39239308.