Rashid Al Khalifa Shades of White
5 March 2026
Born in 1952 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Rashid Al Khalifa held his first solo exhibition at the Dilmun Hotel, Bahrain, in 1970 when he was just 18 years old, and then moved to the UK in 1972 to study at the Hastings College of Arts and Technology in Sussex. After returning to Bahrain in 1978, inspired by Europe’s greatest Impressionist masters, he began his own renditions of his country’s landscapes, producing a series of atmospheric paintings of the desert, sea, and historical sites.
Around 2015, Rashid’s convex surfaces took on textured layers of aluminium, which he manipulated or excised to reveal layering underneath. In doing so, he abandoned the painterly style of previous years to allow for a pristine and symmetrical façade. These structural features, as well as his move towards minimalism, directed his new focus on elemental forms of design and their receptiveness to light and consequent shadows.
Rashid Al Khalifa’s latest work continues to explore the myriad dynamics of light and colours that are characteristic to Bahrain’s geographical and cultural diversity. His current interests lie in the interaction of these properties to further inform his bold interpretations of his cultural heritage. Through splendidly commanding structures, comprising meticulous forms and complex designs, Rashid’s art practice stands as a contemporary tribute to traditional Middle Eastern design and architecture.
Gallerist and art historian Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen met the artist in 2019 while visiting the Middle East for Art Dubai. She was immediately fascinated by Al Khalifa’s minimalist, constructive-architectonical works and worked tirelessly to organize an exhibition of the Emirati artist’s work at the Cadoro – Center for Art and Science in Mainz-Hechtsheim, which is now finally coming to fruition.
In our Video of the Week, the gallerist presents the completed exhibition on the ground floor of the exhibition hall and guides viewers through the space and the history of Al Khalifa’s art.
The vernissage will take place on 14 March. We look forward to welcoming you to our gallery for this occasion!
White – the color of light, clarity, and order – is the theme of Rashid Al Khalifa’s exhibition: Shades of White. A white so diverse that the Inuit, surrounded by eternal white, have more than 200 different names for it. In his convex ‘spectrums’, however, the artist not only alludes to phenomena of nature, such as the incessant shimmering play of light, constantly changing cloud formations, or sand dunes wandering without ceasing.
This exhibition is an invitation to discover silence, to meditate with the artist on the circle – which has neither beginning nor end – for the eternal, the divine, in contrast to the square – which stands for matter and the order created by man.
To resolve these opposites, to connect them, is a metaphor for an impossible task: squaring the circle – or perhaps a possibility of approximation, of seeking points of contact, not only in geometry, but also in what is common and connects cultures.
We hope that our exhibition tour has whetted your appetite for the upcoming exhibition Rashid Al Khalifa – Shades of White, which will be on display from March 14 to June 24 this year at the Cadoro in Mainz. Finally, we have put together a selection of exhibits for you.
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