Selected Artworks
On this page, Ali Gharib presents a selection of his artworks. These pieces offer insight into his artistic work and creative diversity.
For inquiries or further information, Ali Gharib can be contacted at any time.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
ONE
Installation: costumes, engraved mirror tiles, ropes, papier-mâché, 2024.
Ali Gharib connects the traditions of Islamic and Jewish prayer garments to symbolize unity and dialogue between the two faiths. Interlocking elements of the Star of David and the crescent moon form the central motif, processed ornamentally to represent the visual language of both religions. Employing contemporary pop aesthetics, the artist embeds his work within a consumer-oriented context while engaging with modern visual themes. Critically, Gharib draws on Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, viewing art as an opportunity for reflection and questioning the shadows of civilization. Gharib brings Seyyed Hossein Nasr into this conversation — a thinker who emphasizes enlightenment through the metaphysical commonalities of Islam and Judaism — inviting viewers to reflect on shared values and traditions.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Malas
Installation: costume, fabric, rope, silicone, 2024.
The artwork Malas explores the spiritual connection between Judaism and Islam. At its core is a prayer piece designed to be suitable for both religions. It incorporates elements of a prayer garment, a prayer shawl, and prayer straps, all intertwined.
The Arabic inscription references the word Salam, meaning peace. Through its design, which transforms depending on the viewer’s perspective, the word Salam becomes Malas. This transformation symbolizes the process of reconciliation and the bridging of cultural and religious divides.
Malas highlights the shared symbols and rituals of these two religions, emphasizing their deep roots in the pursuit of peace and unity.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Two Prophets
Collage: paint, fabric, cardboard on canvas, 70 x 50 cm each, 2024.
Two Prophets is a collage that combines fabric, cardboard, and paint to create an abstract, symmetrical composition. Dominated by gray geometric elements and vibrant green paint, the piece contrasts structure with dynamism. The green splashes appear spontaneous and energetic, while the gray shapes introduce a sense of order and restraint.
Incorporated fabric pieces with circular patterns break up the surfaces and add a tactile dimension. The symmetry and duality evoke associations with two prophets or visionary figures seemingly engaged in dialogue. The interplay of order and chaos, rationality and intuition, lends the collage a poetic and enigmatic quality.
Ali Gharib
I Wanna Be Like Junya Watanabe
Collage: digital, various sizes, 2018.
Fashion has long been an exclusive playground — shaped by hierarchies, labels, and restrictions. I Wanna Be Like Junya Watanabe explores the democratization of fashion and the breaking down of these barriers. The piece plays with layering, transparency, and form, inspired by the avant-garde aesthetic of Junya Watanabe. A single garment transforms into a hybrid silhouette — a symbol of fashion as a fluid and ever-evolving statement. The black bar, a symbol of censorship, is lifted: what was hidden becomes visible, what was exclusive becomes accessible. This work is a reflection on fashion as a social and cultural language. It shows how digital aesthetics dissolve boundaries — how we don’t just wear fashion but claim it as our own.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
I Had a Dream, I Was Falling Through a Hole
Painting: egg tempera on canvas, 195 x 150 cm, 2018.
This painting was created as part of a research seminar on Bruno Latour and is based on a childhood dream — a vision from the 1980s shaped by fears of the ozone hole crisis. It reflects a child’s imagination of rising sea levels, granting sharks access to the human world, where they can devour children. The work explores the intersection of scientific discourse, individual perception, and the collective unconscious. In a world marked by uncertainty, ecological disasters are not only understood rationally but also processed emotionally — through fears, dreams, and symbolic images. The ruined landscape, the raging water, and the great white shark as an apocalyptic entity can also be seen through a philosophical lens: a reference to René Descartes’ Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). But what happens when the rational separation between humans and nature collapses? What if humanity’s supposed superiority is swallowed by the forces of nature? This work invites us to reflect on ecological crises not just as data and predictions but as deeply embedded existential experiences.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Dress I
Painting: egg tempera on canvas, 125 x 69 cm, 2017.
This work uniquely combines painting and textile art. The canvas becomes a dress, transforming art into something not only visible but wearable. The front and back tell a story — intense, symbolic, and full of expression. The imagery challenges perceptions, invites interpretation, and makes a bold visual statement. Inspired by Surrealism, the piece moves between dream and reality. Distorted bodies, enigmatic symbols, and striking contrasts blur the boundaries of the familiar, encouraging a deeper exploration of its motifs.
Ali Gharib
Ali Gharib
Die systematische Vernichtung von Zwerglanien
Installation: 4-channel video, various materials, 280 x 80 x 500 cm, 2017.
The installation Die systematische Vernichtung von Zwerglanien (The Systematic Extermination of Zwerglanien) employs elements of exaggeration and visual overload to address social, cultural, and potentially political dynamics. By using diverse media — including graffiti elements, images, videos, texts, and everyday objects such as dolls or spray cans — the artist creates a space that is both physically and symbolically charged.
The artwork can be interpreted as a critical reflection on mechanisms of social exclusion and discrimination, deliberately provoking the viewer while encouraging them to question their own patterns of thought. Its visual complexity and subversive humor evoke parallels to diagrammatics, a method that seeks to visualize complex relationships or structures in unconventional ways. Diagrams often disrupt classical orders and facilitate thinking beyond linear systems— an approach that is palpable in this installation.
The piece raises questions about identity, power structures, and the transgression of societal norms. Through its directness and radicality, it aligns itself with artistic practices engaging with pop culture, gender, and subversion.
Dress II
Dress: acrylic on cotton, different sizes depending on the installation, 2017.
The artwork depicted is a dress that can be interpreted as both a painting and a sculpture. It combines textile art with expressive painterly elements. The fabric of the dress is draped and features abstract color gradients in yellow, pink, purple, and blue, resembling brushstrokes that create a vivid and dynamic effect. At the same time, the folds and the three-dimensional presentation emphasize the sculptural quality of the piece.
The bold blue framing the fabric contrasts strikingly with the warm tones of the painterly design, bridging the gap between the dress as a functional object and as a medium of art. This work balances between fashion, artistic expression, and visual art, challenging traditional categories. It represents the fusion of wearable art and spatial composition.
Cell
Painting: egg tempera on paper, each 40 x 60 cm, 2014.
The Cell series explores the interplay of form, transparency, and organic structures. The soft, overlapping color fields resemble microscopic views of living organisms — cell membranes touching, merging, and separating again. Through fluid transitions between layers, a meditative depth emerges. The gentle green tones against a dark background enhance the impression of biological processes: growth, division, transformation. The diffuse, almost floating quality of the forms invites reflection on the boundaries between the visible and the invisible — what our eyes perceive and what remains hidden. These works are not only a study of structure and transparency but also a reflection on life itself — its fragility, adaptability, and continuous movement.
The Bitterness of My Heart
Sculpture: once-fired porcelain, blood-red silicone, diameter 13 cm each, 2013.
The sculpture series The Bitterness of My Heart combines contrasts in a powerful and emotional expression. The porcelain is only once-fired, making it particularly fragile and delicate — a deliberate contrast to the usual qualities of finished porcelain. This extreme fragility symbolizes the vulnerability of emotions and human existence.
The blood-red silicone, which saturates the sculptures, adds profound symbolism to the pieces. Rather than flowing out of the form, it is dipped into it, creating an almost organic connection between the materials. This effect emphasizes the balance between vulnerability and intensity, between pain and inner strength.
With a diameter of approximately 13 cm, each sculpture invites the viewer to reflect on the duality of body, emotion, and materiality. Every perspective reveals new details and amplifies the emotional impact of the works.
Ali Gharib
I Love You
Video performance (cut-out): duration 04:11 min, 2012.
Inspired by Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, this video invites reflection on the radical act of love: the reduction of the beloved object. The metaphorical killing of the object is presented as a cathartic moment — a disruption of the madness of projection, longing, and repetition.What remains when the object is stripped of its symbolism? What emerges when the beloved is seen anew?
This work creates a space to confront the paradoxes of love — as a discourse oscillating between destruction and renewal.
Ali Gharib
Pets Must be Beautiful
Video performance (cut-out): duration 26:36 min, 2009.
The video performance positions itself as a reenactment of Marina Abramovic’s iconic work Art Must Be Beautiful (1975), deliberately adopting its visual and thematic elements. It challenges the audience’s aesthetic expectations to reveal a tension: the pet as a luxury object and status symbol versus the farm animal as a functional commodity.
The work explores the ambivalent relationship between humans and animals, oscillating between emotional closeness and instrumental exploitation. By intentionally echoing Abramovic’s ironic approach, this duality is both emphasized and placed in a contemporary context, highlighting the contradictions in humanity’s treatment of animals.
The aesthetic staging employs irony to create a distance from the depicted images while simultaneously deepening their conceptual impact. Through the juxtaposition of luxury and utility, affection and exploitation, the performance prompts reflection on society’s engagement with animals and their cultural significance within the interplay of use and empathy.
Ali Gharib
Anne Marie
Painting: egg tempera on paper, 53×40 cm, 2009.
This painting blends a powerful yet delicate aesthetic, expressed through the fusion of figure and texture. The minimalist depiction of the human form, with flowing contours and restrained color tones, creates space for interpretation and emotion. The earthy color palette contrasts with the soft whites of the cloth held in the figure’s hands — a symbol that may evoke protection, transformation, or vulnerability.
The intentionally abstract rendering of the face enhances the universal quality of the work, inviting viewers to project their own stories and emotions onto the piece. Special attention is drawn to the details, such as the expressive hand with dark nails, which adds a subtle tension between stillness and drama.
This painting is a reflection of introspection and the beauty found in imperfection. It encourages us to pause and perceive the quiet nuances within ourselves and the world around us.