Meet the artists behind Art in the Middle’s first Open Call: Winter Light

Art in the Middle invited artists to explore Winter Light, looking beyond the familiar imagery of soft light, long shadows, changing skies, and winter landscapes to consider what the theme might mean on a more personal level. 

From painting and photography to mixed media and printmaking, the open call welcomed interpretations across a range of visual practices. We received work shaped by memory, heritage, nature, and a sense of belonging. 

Now, we introduce the three artists selected as our Winter Light open call winners, each offering a distinct perspective on the theme and the experiences behind their work.

Guzel Abdrakhmanova, The Hunter

For visual artist and art educator Guzel Abdrakhmanova, painting is closely connected to ancestry, cultural identity, and collective memory. In The Hunter, a Tatar woman dressed in traditional attire stands on the steppe on a freezing winter morning, accompanied by a falcon. Inspired by Guzel’s Tatar heritage and the landscapes of her homeland, the painting also explores the cultural connections that can exist between seemingly different places. She sees parallels between the Volga steppe and the Arabian desert, particularly in the warmth of shared traditions and the importance of ancestral roots.

Having lived in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, the Caribbean, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, Guzel’s understanding of home has been shaped by moving between cultures. After seven years in Qatar, she finds herself missing the cold winters of her childhood, while also reflecting on where she belongs. As she explains, “Having lived between so many different places and cultures, I sometimes find myself wondering where my home truly is.”

Painted in oils, the work draws on the classical Russian school, with influences including Ilya Repin and Nicolai Fechin. Guzel brings together realism and impressionism through expressive brushwork, allowing the surface of the painting to carry as much feeling as the subject itself.

Ultimately, The Hunter is about the connections that remain with us, wherever life takes us. For Guzel, Winter Light speaks of “finding warmth, identity, and belonging, even when we are far from the landscapes of our childhood”. She continues to develop her research into Volga Bulgar heritage, with hopes of contributing to the Volga Bulgar Museum in the future.

Visit: guzelart.ru

Maryem Abdel Meguid , Sidr: Between Presence and Absence

Egyptian visual artist and creative researcher Maryem based in the UAE, explores the relationship between nature, human experience and identity. Working across experimental printmaking and post-digital practices, she combines techniques such as cyanotype, botanical eco-printing, drawing and digital media to explore how materials and the natural environment can shape an artwork.

Her winning piece, Sidr: Between Presence and Absence, began with an everyday experience. One sunny morning in the UAE, Mariam was walking a considerable distance while carrying her young daughter. Looking for relief from the intense sun, she changed her route to follow a shaded pathway lined with sidr trees. During that walk, she became aware of the rhythm of her footsteps, her daughter’s sounds and the rustling leaves. She recalls feeling as though “the trees themselves were moving alongside me, striving with me, sharing that moment of movement and effort”.

That moment became the starting point for a wider exploration of Sa’i, a concept connected to striving, resilience, and the often-unseen efforts that shape our lives. The sidr tree became more than a subject in the work: it represented endurance and the ability to adapt, while continuing to offer shade and protection. The resulting installation combines hand drawing, cyanotype printing on cotton fabric, and an augmented reality video showing the actual pathway that inspired the piece. Sunlight plays an active role in the process, helping to reveal the intricate drawing through the distinctive deep blue tones of cyanotype. Suspended against a dark background, the fabric creates a shifting presence, reflecting the title’s ideas of visibility, memory, and absence.

Maryem hopes the work encourages viewers to pause and consider the experiences that often go unnoticed. “I hope the artwork invites everyone who encounters it to pause for a moment and recognize the quiet forms of striving that shape our human existence.” Her current research continues to explore hybrid printmaking, bringing together traditional techniques, drawing, and digital media.

Visit: mrimaart

Daria Makarenko, The Silence of a Winter Morning

For Daria Makarenko, The Silence of a Winter Morning is rooted in memory and a longing for the landscapes of her childhood. Originally from Siberia, she spent the first eighteen years of her life surrounded by long, intensely cold winters, enormous snowdrifts and almost crystalline snow.

Now living in Abu Dhabi, she finds herself missing a very different kind of winter from the one experienced in the UAE. Daria began exploring art as a child in Russia, experimenting with pottery, digital design and gouache before eventually returning to painting after moving to Abu Dhabi. Although she had never seriously worked with oils before, buying her first paints and canvases gave her a way back into a creative practice. Painting also became a means of expressing emotions that can be difficult to put into words. As she explains, “Painting gives those emotions a place to exist outside of me.”

Her Winter Light work captures the atmosphere of a winter landscape rather than simply its physical appearance. For Daria, winter light is subtle, changing the mood of a scene without revealing everything. Snow softens familiar forms, creating a sense of distance, stillness and mystery. The silence in the title is just as important as the light: it suggests a moment when the world seems to pause, leaving room for reflection.

Working primarily in oils, Daria approaches painting intuitively, allowing colour, atmosphere and imagination to guide her decisions. She is less concerned with reproducing a landscape exactly as it appears and more interested in the feeling it creates. She hopes viewers will bring their own interpretations to the work, rather than looking for one fixed meaning.

Reflecting on the relationship between painting and winter light, Daria says, “Sometimes the quieter things are the ones that stay with us the longest.” She is now exploring more expressive forms and unusual colour combinations, while also hoping to spend more time painting landscapes outdoors and exhibiting her work internationally.