Do you know how often it is in Oman that you plan to do or see something and make a whole trip out of it and end up seeing something else entirely?
Tonight was like that for me.
BTW, Bait Zubair Museum, you should TOTALLY fire whoever was manning the desk when I phoned and asked what time you are open until. Because they told me 7 p.m. . And your sign and locked gate neatly informed that 6pm is the rule saturday-thursday. What else that hasn't been done in Old Muscat for an OPNO girl like me, hmmm?
As luck would have it, Bait Muzna Art Gallery was open directly across the street until 7 p.m. Who knows, maybe the girl at the Zubair Museum desk thought she worked here? Opening at 9:30 am until 7pm saturday-thursday . I'd always wanted to check this place out since I heard it was Said Princess Susan's [don't quote me] pet project to showcase and support Omani artists and highlight the major works of the Gulf Region, and the exhibition they'd just had on Arabic Calligraphy had been on my to-do list. Sadly, I missed that. Dutch painter Tonny also had a painting recently exhibited called 'Clouds over Ruins' I've admired from printed-pamphlet afar for its Bedouin subjects and finished quality.
Bait Muzna used to be an actual Royal Residence and the open courtyard lay-out was converted into a throughly modern gallery without taking away from that, the space of the sky being filled in with a glass ceiling to protect the precious works displayed inside.
Current featured Omani artists include Abdul Majeed Kurooh (we really loved the brilliant colours of his Omani doors via mixed media on convas so much so that I wished I had a space to hang a more contemporary peice of the like),
Adnan Al Raisi (myself, I'm not much for abstract but I did enjoy the works entitled 'Short Story I&II' and 'after the cyclon' did make us contemplate whether or not we felt any charged emotions leftover from Gonu [didn't but then, we're not abstract people and I don't believe one should critique anything they don't understand and love],
...and Tahira Fida (not much on my part but I did like one of her doors and if I had a modern white bedroom to decorate perhaps one of ther jewelry mixed media works might interest me---husband liked the tiled mixed medias).
This exhibition runs until May 24th. For information about previous and upcoming exhibitions see here
http://www.baitmuznagallery.com/Exhibition.htmThe other works in the gallery ranged from realism, figuratives [the previous my general thing], sculpture,
photography [my husband wanted to buy one of these],
calligraphy, conceptual art, abstracts ect., to Omani/Arabian handicrafts, contemporary takes on the former, and what I saw was that works ranged from 80-6,000 OMR, with the average range being 150-300 OMR, so there were some very affordable pieces for those aiming to make purchases. Lookey-loos like us were welcomed just as warmly, so don't be shy to visit yourself.
tel: (968) 24 739 204
located directly across from Bait Zubair Museum in Old Muscat on the road from Muttrah to Sidab.
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