At Buro247 Middle East, we are committed to showcasing and celebrating the extraordinary talent in the Arab world. With our column, #BuroSpotlights, we bring you stories of pioneering artists, innovative designers, tech trailblazers, cinematic visionaries, sports stars, and more.
This week, #BuroSpotlights Kuwaiti artist Ghadah Alkandari.
To step into Ghadah Alkandari’s world is to enter a space where emotion finds its voice, where thought becomes movement, and where every brushstroke feels alive. Her art reflects the pulse of life. Faces stretch, lines tremble, and colors breathe with quiet rhythm, each painting capturing something fleeting yet deeply familiar. Over time, Alkandari has emerged as one of Kuwait’s most distinct artistic voices, turning private emotion into collective reflection through her vivid, unguarded visual language.
Her paintings often move between clarity and ambiguity, balancing representation and abstraction. In her earlier works, she explored family, connection, and solitude with striking honesty. Each figure carried its own story, shaped by tenderness, exhaustion, love, and contemplation. The emotional truth in these works is undeniable, yet they are never heavy. There is always lightness in her tone, a quiet humor that acknowledges the complexity of human life without romanticizing it.
In recent years, Alkandari’s practice has evolved into something more instinctive. She began letting go of the defined forms that once structured her paintings. What remains are movements, gestures, and traces of presence. The canvas becomes a record of physical and emotional energy rather than an image of something seen. This transition feels like an act of freedom, a decision to let intuition lead. The result is work that feels both deeply personal and timeless in its honesty.
Alongside her larger canvases, Alkandari continues to create smaller pen-and-ink drawings that capture the beauty of daily life. A moment of stillness, a woman lost in thought, a quiet domestic scene — her subjects are ordinary, yet through her eyes they gain emotional gravity. These works show her gift for turning the simple into the profound.
Alkandari’s art has been exhibited widely, from Kuwait to Paris and Dubai, where she has taken part in shows centered on Arab identity and female perspectives. Beyond the walls of galleries, she maintains an ongoing digital space of her own. Through her long-running blog Pretty Green Bullet, she shares her drawings, reflections, and artistic process.
Now based in Cairo, Alkandari continues to create with a balance of control and spontaneity. Her art resists definition. It is emotional without sentiment, introspective without distance. Each piece holds a quiet intensity that lingers long after the first look.
