We are pleased to present an exhibition of the works created by the first cohort of residents from our Summer 2026 artist residency in Dubai. This year's emerging artists in residence are Lynn Issa, Yang Lan and Yara Chaalan. Working across sculpture, painting, collage, and charcoal drawings on paper, the artists experimented and developed their practices, responding to themes of place, longing, memory and experiences of womanhood.
Lynn Issa expands on her series Sacred Mothers of the Earth, which stems from her exploration of the female figure starting in 2018. One of her key references for the female form and a conceptual starting point for the series is Venus of Willendorf, the famous prehistoric limestone statuette carved around 30,000 years ago. Taking cues from these historic representations of the female body associated with health and fertility, Issa explores the figure as a site of tension or contradiction, shaped by societal expectations and internalized perceptions. She presents acrylic and charcoal works on paper, collaged and layered canvas works, and a figurative papier-mâché sculpture.
Yang Lang’s practice explores the emotional and atmospheric dimensions of landscape through oil painting, printmaking, and digital experimentation. Working between observation and intuitive abstraction, she engages with shifting perspectives, ecological transformation, and memory. Through the residency period she revisited landscapes and places from her memories, translating them into expressive oil paintings shaped by feeling and gestural brushstrokes. With intricate brushwork and imaginative color palettes, she captures the motion, energy, and atmosphere of the environments from her memories in China, Jordan and North America.
Yara Chaalan’s painting and embroidery work use abstraction tomerge the elements of the female figure with natural, vacant landscapes of her native Lebanon. Drawing on the Surrealist approach of implying the uncanny in nature, her works offer dreamlike, evocative settings rendered in bright greens, blues and reds. Her compositions are also inspired by ecofeminism, a philosophical and political movement that connects the oppression of women with the degradation of the natural world. Her time at the residency saw her produce a series of oil paintings and embroidered works on textile that play with materiality to push the boundaries of her subject.
The Fann À Porter Summer 2026 residency began with an open call launched in the spring, and offered UAE-based artists a studio space for three months and mentorship from the gallery team and visiting artists and curators. We look forward to introducing the first residents and sharing their work with you.
