Syrian artist Abdul Karim Majdal Al-Beik places the city of Damascus and the Syrian political situation at the centre of his work. His painterly compositions seek hidden stories amongst the multitude of graffiti, etchings, marks and cracks of the walls of Damascus's Old City.

Recognizing this patina as means of examining local history, Majdal Al-Beik carefully replicates its textures, colours, and shapes, employing the exact materials that are used in the construction of these ancient Damascene facades. With a limited palette of white, black and grey, he reconfigures these two dimensional surfaces with charcoal, plaster, starch and ash, creating fissures where these materials collide.

In recent years, Majdal Al- Beik's practiayyamgallery.com...