In Dubai, ArtKōrero continues its discreet art-selling initiative with Creative Resistance — Drop 2, introducing The Inner Circle, an even more private layer of access to previously unseen works.

Moving away from the noise of traditional art platforms, the project focuses on intimate viewing and direct engagement with artists from the region. It introduces a new rhythm of engagement: each release is unlocked via a private password and offers a tightly curated selection of works, often available at special, one-time conditions.

At a time when uncertainty continues to shape the cultural landscape, the project positions itself as "a quiet act of resistance", a reminder that supporting artists, particularly local and emerging voices, is not a luxury but a necessary investment in cultural continuity. By favouring intimacy over mass exposure, it reinforces the importance of sustaining creative communities and keeping artistic dialogue alive when it matters most.

This edition brings together works by Rabab Tantawy, Mohamed Kaitouqa, Sepideh Ilsley, Akshay Arora, Olivia Babel, Alireza Elahi, Ortwin Klipp, and Jenna Bitar. Developed in collaboration with galleries and institutions including NIKA, Rarares, Base 39, and Gallery Isabelle, the drop remains intentionally discreet, with access reserved for those within The Inner Circle. We spoke with some of the artists about the works they chose for this release, the processes behind them, and how ideas of uncertainty, intuition, and persistence shape their practice — revealing how, in different ways, each approaches making as a quiet form of resistance.

The project’s idea of a “quiet act of creative resistance” resonates deeply with me. For me, painting is a way of insisting on beauty, not as something superficial, but as something necessary and sustaining. In moments when the world feels overwhelming or uncertain, the act of creating becomes a way to remain present and engaged.

There is a quiet resilience in choosing to make, to return to the canvas, and to stay with the process. Painting allows me to hold complexity without needing to resolve it immediately — to sit with ambiguity and still create something that offers a sense of balance or calm. It also becomes a space where a sense of openness and freedom can exist, something that feels essential, even if it is not always visible.

In this way, the work becomes both a form of perseverance and a space of solace. It reflects a belief that even small, quiet acts of creation can carry meaning and strength. This is where I see the connection to creative resistance: in the steady, ongoing commitment to making, feeling, pushing and continuing forward.

The works I selected for this project come from an ongoing place where painting is a necessary, almost meditative act. It is not tied to a specific moment, but is a constant within my practice, a way of staying present and engaged over time. Each piece reflects an openness to process, allowing the work to evolve without a predetermined outcome. The story behind them is not linear, but emotional: a quiet navigation of uncertainty, where each gesture and form emerges as a response to both internal states and the surrounding world. Together, they form a body of work that speaks to endurance, presence, and the subtle ways we continue moving forward.

Many of the works are built slowly, through repetition, pause, and reconsideration. There is a constant negotiation between control and release, knowing when to act and when to hold back. This tension is essential to the work. Beneath the minimal, abstract forms lies a deeper process of grappling with complexity, where each layer carries traces of revision, persistence, and quiet resolve.

For me, the resistance is in continuing to make the work without trying to resolve or simplify what I’m feeling. There is pressure to make sense of things, to present something polished or complete. These works refuse that. They stay in the in-between, in the unresolved. Choosing to keep working through that state, to not wait for things to settle before creating, feels like a form of resistance.

It is quiet because it is not trying to declare anything. It is just insisting on continuing.

The works I have selected are part of where I am right now, both mentally and physically. They came out of a moment that feels fast, layered, and difficult to fully process while inside it.

The figures are packed, overlapping, almost compressed. There is urgency in the lines, a sense that everything is happening at once. The title In a Blur comes from that feeling of knowing that one day I will look back and say, “that all felt like a blur,” while still being inside it now.

What might not be immediately visible is the pace at which they are made and the state they come from. These works are not slow or overly considered; they are instinctive, almost reactive.

There is very little correction. The lines come quickly, and they carry whatever is happening in that moment, physically and emotionally. The compression you see in the figures is not just visual; it is a reflection of that internal pressure.

Also, despite how dense they feel, they are not about to collapse. There is still movement, still a sense of holding together.

Resistance is, first and foremost, a search for inner harmony. Finding peace within oneself and cultivating faith are key elements for moving forward, embracing life, and honouring it.

This approach can be carried out through rituals, healing practices, meditation, but also through artworks like mine, which provide emotional, symbolic and energetic support.

All of my tapestries open up new ways of seeing life and our everyday existence. Born from a dialogue between abstraction and geography, they invite us to connect with our imagination and inner being. The artworks selected for this project, DESERTIC 1 and DESERTIC 2, guide us back to the origin, to the very essence of things. They also offer a path toward reconnection: with the natural world, with the sacred, with something vast and beyond us. In their presence, we are gently led toward a space of serenity and quiet solace. They become, in this way, vessels of protection, holding within them a sense of faith, trust, and surrender to life.

My series DESERTIC is an ongoing exploration through which I seek to translate the essence of arid landscapes and desert environments into woven forms. I distil what I perceive, shapes, colours, and atmospheres, into artworks that can be hung on our walls.

As Hegel wrote in his Aesthetics (1835): “When art merely imitates nature, it cannot rival it; it is like a worm attempting, as it crawls, to imitate an elephant.”

In this sense, through abstraction, I propose not a reconstruction of nature but rather a sensitive, spiritual, and profound vision that reconnects us to our essence.

I interweave wool, luminous threads, and textiles, using a range of handweaving techniques, from driadi weaving to knotted and plain weaving. Each gesture, each thread, carries intention. What often remains unseen is the time itself: nearly one hundred hours devoted to each piece, woven in my studio on a loom frame designed specifically for this body of work.

Soon, I hope to open my studio, to present my work and share my creation process more intimately.