Papier-mache plantation: Inside Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim’s forest-inspired exhibition in Abu Dhabi

Each one of Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim’s artworks is a fragment of an uplifting and vibrant world, complete with its own ecosystem, animals and even weather.

His papier-mache sculptures are eight-legged insects craning their necks to the sky or arboreal forms stretching in neon and pastel hues. Microbial beings spangle his canvases with polychromatic verve. His towers are covered in curious, barnacle-like creatures. His chairs are life forms in themselves.

Ibrahim has long been a staple at local art fairs and group exhibitions, but only slivers of his wondrous and fantastical world are typically presented at these events. In his solo exhibition at the Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi, the artist reveals that world in its full, lively wonder.

Two Clouds in the Night Sky is a celebration of the contributions of a pioneering figure on the UAE’s contemporary arts scene. The exhibition, running until February 22, is not Ibrahim's first solo, but it does represent a full circle in the artist’s career.

Among the first works in the exhibition is an untitled 1989 painting. It is immediately clear that the work is distinct from the other pieces within the exhibition. The colour palette leans towards earthy tones, and the forms within the piece are depicted in dizzying swirls. The painting is dynamic, and though it is clear that it represents the artistic vision that Ibrahim would develop and perfect in the decades that followed, it is a wholly separate work.

The exhibition presents many of Ibrahim's recent works in a forest-like formation. Ryan Lim for The National

Untitled (1989) was displayed in Ibrahim’s first solo exhibition in 1991, which was first shown at Qasr Al Thaqafa in Sharjah before being presented at the Cultural Foundation, marking his earliest major institutional recognition.

The piece is the oldest in Two Clouds in the Night Sky, and a rare example from that period. That isn’t surprising, given Ibrahim set fire to most of his works in the late 1990s.

As such, though the exhibition is sprawling and brings together a stunning diversity of work – from sculptures and paintings to installations – it would be amiss to call Two Clouds in the Night Sky a retrospective.

“It is more of a landmark show,” says Noor Al Mehairbi, who co-curated the show with Medyyah Al Tamimi. “I didn't really show his works from a strict chronological view. Instead, I highlighted his recent practice.”

The exhibition is organised into four sections, each reflecting a distinct mode through which Ibrahim engages with the natural world and the subconscious.

In Transit, the first and largest section, unfolds as an immersive environment in which papier-mache sculptures and paintings are gathered into a dense, forest-like formation.

The curation is shrewd, trying not to spotlight any singular work but rather communicating a larger, enveloping ecology of forms. Clouds, insects, trees and Ibrahim’s recurring cypher-like shapes appear as coexisting life forms, encouraging viewers to experience the space as a living landscape rather than a sequence of discrete objects.

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