“First I thought that maybe all of this tension was filling the space and that by now
our souls must have already haunted the places where we lingered, but I was wrong
and it all made sense in dream, because in reality those places they actually
haunted us and tasked us.”
(Excerpt from a text written by Roy Samaha)
Trained as a painter, Tamara Al-Samerraei’s practice encompasses painting, illustration, photography, animation, video and installation, often mixing the conventions of each medium by using processes and effects such
as transferring, scanning, photographing photographs and pentimento.
Let Me Stay a Little Longer is an exhibition of paintings constituted by found objects
and spaces as much as recurrent characters.
They are inherently part of the tension and uncanniness of the spatial environments
that are often associated with images of staged sets and crime scenes.
Layered and deliberately unpolished, Al-Samerraei’s work often explores
ways for parallel narratives to exist where in a given time and space
they are invisible. These narratives are sometimes embedded in margins, boxes,
and wallpaper patterns.
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiNight Crawling 2 , 2015"Acrylic paint on canvas133.5 x 108.5 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist -
Tamara Al-SamerraeiNight Crawling 1 , 2015Acrylic paint on canvas
133.5 x 108.5 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist -
Tamara Al-SamerraeiRed Green Buttons, 2014Acrylic paint on canvas,220.5 x 177 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiBed, 2014Acrylic paint on canvas216 x 200.5 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiShore Diptych, 2014Acrylic paint on canvas95 x 106.5 cm eachCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiShore 2 , 2014Acrylic paint on canvas104 x 106 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiCorridor , 2015Acrylic paint on canvas131 x 125cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiLiving Room , 2015Acrylic paint on canvas135 x 140cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiChair , 2015Acrylic paint on canvas204 x 190.5cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiWallpaper, 2015mixed media on paper246 x 270 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiEye, 2015Charcoal and acrylic on cotton paper140 x 100 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiDogfight, 2015Acrylic paint on cotton paper15 x 33 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiTwo Figures, 2014Acrylic paint on canvas
46 x 91 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist -
Tamara Al-SamerraeiSelfie, 2014Pencil on paper26 x 30 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiUntitled 1, 2014Pencil on Paper26 x 27cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiFlesh and Green 1 , 2014Pencil on paper30 x 40.5 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiFlesh and Green 2 , 2014Pencil on paper30 x 40.5 cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiUntitled 3, 2014Pencil on paper25 x 35cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
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Tamara Al-SamerraeiUntitled 4, 2014Pencil on paper25 x 35cmCourtesy of Marfa’ ProjectsCopyright The Artist
Tamara Al-Samerraei
Born in Kuwait in 1977, Tamara Al-Samerraei is a painter who lives and works in Beirut.
She received a BA in Fine Arts from the Lebanese American University in Beirut in 2002 and completed the inaugural year of the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan (2011-2012), Beirut.
Her solo exhibitions include Promise You Made, Marfa’, Beirut (2023); Outland, Le Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle (2022); What Floats in Space, Marfa’ Projects, Beirut (2019); Let Me Stay a Little Longer, Marfa’ Projects, Beirut (2015-2016); Make Room for Me, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2014); Fleeting Fences (2011) and Something White (2008), Agial Art Gallery, Beirut.
She has participated in several group and duo exhibitions including Fondu Re-Encahine, L’Atlas Galerie des Mondes, Paris (2022); Hospitalités-FIAC, InSitu Fabienne Leclerc, Paris (2020); Heavenly Beings:Neiter Human Nor Animal, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, +MSUM,Ljubljan(2018); The Clocks are Striking Thirteen, 21,39; Jeddah Home Beirut: Sounding the Neighbours, MAXXI museum, Rome (2017); Tamawuj-Sharjah Biennial13, Sharjah (2017); Play The Possum, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2016); Complicity, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait (2016); On Water, Rosemary and Mercury in Homeworks 7, Beirut (2015); 25 Ans De Creativite Arabe, Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012); All About Beirut, White Box, Munich (2010); Exposure, Beirut Art Center, Beirut; Radius of Art project, Fladernbunker, Kiel (2008) and ShoeBox, Dar Al Funoon, Kuwait (2007).
