Efie Gallery hosts Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough…

EFIE Gallery has unveiled its latest exhibition, ‘Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough…’, ongoing till July 30, 2025, at its new location in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai’s premier cultural district.

Curated by Nigerian Ose Ekore, the group exhibition brings together five intergenerational artists: Samuel Fosso (b. 1962), Aïda Muluneh (b. 1974), Kelani Abass (b. 1978), Abeer Sultan (b. 1999), and Sumayah Fallatah (b. 2000).

 It is the second to be held at the gallery after relocating to Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. Its opening monumental solo show entitled ‘I Am Soil. My Tears Are Water’ was by Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons.  Faridah Folawiyo curated the exhibition which ended on May 24.

‘Time Heals…’, a film and photography show, offers powerful visual narratives that encourage reflection on healing, growth, and understanding over time.

Curator,Ekore, explained: “In an era shaped by urgency, time heals, just not quick enough… invites viewers to slow down and reconsider their relationship with time. The curatorial direction emerged organically, guided by the themes the participating artists have thoughtfully explored in their practices.”

Fallatah’s work weaves personal and family narratives with broader themes of race, migration, and the African diaspora in the Arab world. In ‘I became you, so I lost myself’ (2024), she layers family photographs, archival images, indigo-dyed textiles, and red thread to reflect on the emotional toll of cultural assimilation and the grief of migration.

Her video ‘Fruits of Meditation’ (2023) revisits a childhood memory of her father’s meditative ritual—reciting fruit names while making squeezing motions—captured through two parallel videos: one of her father selecting fruit in deep meditation and the other of Fallatah attempting to understand his practice.

Sultan’s ‘Agua Viva’ explores marine life through personal history, inspired by her family’s migration from West Africa to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. She constructs a new cosmography using self-portraiture, intertwining hidden geographies and overlooked histories. Through collages, photography, and moving images of jellyfish, corals, and shells, Sultan creates fictional artefacts and lost data, shaping a new mythology for future generations of the African diaspora in the Arab Peninsula.

Abass merges history, memory, and technology, drawing influence from his father’s letterpress printing company. His mixed-media works layer photography, text, and found objects, blending mechanical processes with traditional painting techniques to explore the passage of time and the fluidity of identity.

Fosso challenges identity and representation through experimental self-portraits embodying various personas. On view are 20 works from his ‘70s Lifestyle series (1974 – 1978). The artist’s first exposure to photography outside the Central African Republic came through magazine images brought by visiting American Peace Corps volunteers. Captivated by the fashion and style of African Americans and West African music icon Prince Nico Mbarga, he sought to channel both influences through stylised self-portraits in his studio.

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Muluneh’s photographs subvert conventional representations of African women through a bold, signature visual language rooted in surrealism and Ethiopian cultural motifs. Her striking compositions, often rendered in vivid primary colours, employ face painting, masks, and ceremonial garments to explore the intersection of personal and political narratives. By merging symbolic aesthetics with arresting directness, Muluneh reframes narratives of womanhood and asserts photography as a powerful tool in reshaping Africa’s global image.

With ‘Time Heals, Just Not Quick Enough…,’ Efie Gallery continues its commitment to showcasing thoughtful, timely exhibitions that bridge generations and geographies, offering a platform for dialogue around healing, transformation, and cultural continuity.