The fluid art she creates is part fantastical, part alluring, depicting among other things, the beauty of nature, unknown identities and unseen beauties, hearts that long to be held and touched by love, and an earth that wants to be healed.
These abstract patterns in warm hues of red, gold, brown, bronze, orange and blue, require physical movements and the use of both force and fire to let the colours blend and flow into each other.
The award-winning UAE-based Egyptian artist Dina Khataan is a self-taught master of experimental art, using resin and fluid mixes. Known in local art circles as the Queen of Resin, Dina is among the pioneers of resin and alcohol ink in the UAE and the Middle East. Winner of the "Global Art Awards in 2018 in Innovative Art", Dina’s creations are free flowing and intuitive, and have been exhibited in several international and local exhibitions in the UAE, Turkey, Egypt. The first among these, in the UAE, featured her artwork Aurelia, created using alcohol ink on resin.
Fluid art
"Large-scale resin art is my game," says Dina, who excels in more than two-metre large creations. Her art, where drops of alcohol ink on resin look frozen in time, is also modified into different objects, such as tables, wall panels and headboards.
Till date, her most challenging work has been Golden Threads – a 2.5m x 1.8m headboard that now finds a space in one of the residences in Meydan.
Another such creation – a 180cm x 180cm resin art panel – was used for a tabletop for a client in Dubai. "I called it Diya – which means light or glow in Hindi and Arabic. It holds a deep significance and is symbolic of people's journey towards enlightenment. The holographic effects and the sparkle of the artwork crowns the simplicity of the composition with a minimalistic colour palette."
Her Future Landscapes was a long 250cm x 60cm artistic bar top made with resin, commissioned for the Entertainment Room of a prestigious residence in Ikoyi Island in Lagos, Nigeria.
"The fluid art I create resembles life around me in so many ways. In life, we try and plan everything, but it flows in its own way. We have no other choice but to go with that flow," says Dina, who prefers using non-standard techniques in her artworks, such as splashing and swiping, along with other physical movements.
For her art tools, she often uses fire, heat gun or a blow torch and doesn’t hesitate to experiment with kitchen tools, such as a knife. "The effect of fire changes the density of the fluid medium that I am using," she explains. Her art also involves lots of physical movements as she tries and moves colours together with such tools.
Discovering resin
It was almost by accident that Dina came across the art of resin painting. "I saw it first on YouTube, and then spent hours reading about it, searching online for materials. My first resin painting was called The Waves of Night – a very dark seascape.
"Resin, which is a two-component system (the resin and the hardner), is a complex yet simple medium. It is essential to bow to the rules of the game! When I work with resin, I feel I am in a pull-and-push situation – you try to control the fluidity of the medium before it hardens and turns into a glassy surface. Once mastered, you start to celebrate the idea of opportunistic art as it enables you to indulge in non-standard painting techniques. It gives you the versatility and flexibility of creating creative functional art that serves many applications," explains Dina.
Though self-taught, Dina’s early inspiration was her grandfather, a sculptor who instilled in her a love for art and colours. "I was the only one among all my siblings who could go into his workshop and I learnt so much about colours and calligraphy there. He worked with glass and ceramics and drew inspiration from Japanese culture. He passed his knowledge and philosophy to me and even today I draw a lot of my inspirations from the far east."
Days in Cape Town
Her marriage took Dina to South Africa and here nature played a huge role in her life. "A lot of my work reflects nature – the water, earth, minerals – I was totally besotted by the beauty of nature during the many years I lived and worked in South Africa as an interior designer," she says.
"My inspiration is driven from my life in Cape Town, South Africa where there are two oceans colliding with each other on this beautiful earth, full of natural treasures. My art reflects that beauty, capturing both the understated and the spectacular. Africa teaches you to respect and bow to nature."
In Dubai, expanding horizons
Her passion for art took a different turn when she came to live in Dubai in 2017. "Dubai opened a big window for me. For the first time, people started taking note of my work. They got curious about my resin art and I began working with interior designers to create artworks for installations in homes, hotels and public spaces.
"My artworks always carry a positive message – they make people look at the beautiful things in life and draw hope and inspiration from them," says Dina.
Art in lockdown
As an artist, she used the space and quietness during the lockdown last year to be deeply creative, finally producing an artwork totally out of her comfort zone. "It took me three weeks – day and night – to paint it. It is an oil painting with resin on top that shows my two daughters dressed as frontline nurses, drowning in a pool, holding the earth in their hands. Titled True Heroes, this has been my attempt to document the lives lost this year and is a tribute to my hard-working parents, who in their seventies, are still working as doctors in Saudi Arabia," says the 38-year-old artist.
"I feel the pandemic has given us an important message – it has shown us that the world has changed and we need to focus within and see what makes us happy and how we can make others happy."
30 Days on Fire
Her efforts towards this has been the ‘‘30 Days on Fire’’ giveaway initiative where she challenges herself to complete an artwork each day, starting January 13. The artwork is then given away to a winner who enters a competition on Instagram and follows her page.
"The 30 artworks series symbolises hope for a better world. Following the gloom of 2020, I felt the need to give hope to those who feel the bitterness of their losses. Fire is a symbol of rebirth and eternity and through my art I want people to see life in its full spectrum of colours," says Dina. The full collection will be exhibited in February in a unique contemporary solo exhibition 30 Days on Fire.
Dina Khataan’s resin art is currently being exhibited at the Mercure Hotel Suites and Apartments at the Barsha Heights, Dubai.
