Taymour Grahne Gallery (New York) Showed work by Nadia Ayari at Expo Chicago 2015. Ayari's work here is heavy with symbolism--figs, flowers and ferns. She is originally from Tunisia and currently resides in New York City. Ayari has an MFA from RISD and is one of the people running S2A, a project space and art collective in New York.
Her work often incorporates themes related to the Middle East, a practice that began after she moved to the United States. These pieces are more landscape than political document but then there is the fig--so often symbolic: sometimes it is a symbol of peace and others a symbol of temptation. Other traditions link the fig to prosperity. Her work is not only symbolic but quite beautiful. The rough but perfect brush strokes and subtle color shifts flow across the canvas.