Leila Heller Gallery is pleased to present its first ever solo exhibition of the pioneering Emirati Artist Abdul Qader Al Rais in Nuqta: The Diacritic. On view March 23rd to September 15th Nuqta: The Diacritic presents a series of the artist’s paintings across his third period of his work, which is marked by his engagement with bringing abstraction and local cultural heritage into dialogue. Al Rais incorporates the contours of calligraphy as well as the rocky cliffs, deserts, and shores of the region’s unique natural world into his rigorous study of the fundamental elements of color, form, and light. The works exhibited range from oil on canvas to watercolor on paper, and offers a painterly alternative to current understandings of the UAE’s art history as rooted in highly concept-based and anti-aesthetic installations.