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Lot Essay
“After more than a year of mostly painting darkness, last month I attempted to present light. Never have I witnessed a creation of mine have an effect on viewers/those experiencing it as this one. It made the painting more fulfilling, purposeful and filled with possibilities” – Rami Farook, November 2024
Oh god, I ask you for peace of mind is conceived as a window: an opening onto a quieter world in which the boundaries between the self and nature, earth and sky, begin to dissolve. Across the square canvas, a luminous landscape unfolds beneath an expansive sky of pastel blue, pink, yellow and green. Rather than simply marking the horizon, this shifting band of colour forms a bridge between earth and sky, giving the scene a sense of suspension and possibility. Palms and foliage frame the view, while birds drift through the air and a solitary figure on horseback moves quietly among grazing animals in the foreground. Farook’s layered application of spray paint and oil allows the colours to bleed softly into one another, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. The landscape resists a fixed narrative or a singular interpretation; instead, it offers a place into which the viewer might momentarily withdraw.
The title transforms the landscape from a place of escape into an invocation, a quiet appeal to God for inner peace. Created during a period in which the artist himself was searching for peace, the work extends that longing beyond the personal, expressing a hope for serenity for humanity more broadly. The open sky, drifting birds and pastoral stillness suggest a world in which the self is momentarily released from the pressures of everyday life and brought into closer relation with creation. Farook conceived the painting as an escape for himself, the viewer and the caretaker alike, with the intention of uplifting, relaxing and transporting. Looking thus becomes almost a meditative act: the landscape opens onto a space of contemplation and an encounter with something beyond the self.
Created as a sequel to the smaller A Peaceful Landscape Painted in the Spring (2024), the painting was completed over the course of a month across three locations, its evolving surface carrying something of that journey. What began as a search for peace becomes both refuge and prayer, a threshold between the earthly and the spiritual.
Born in 1981 in Dubai, Rami Farook is an Emirati self-taught interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, performance and other media. His work is shaped by an interest in the possibilities and responsibilities of art, and by a process of conceptualisation, intervention and experimentation often pursued with emotional intensity and impulsivity. His artworks are manifestations of an inner monologue as he observes and processes everyday moments and turbulent current events, synthesising diverse materials and techniques with his emotional journey, worldview and thoughts. His more recent work has explored the relationship between God, faith, the self, family and society.
Farook’s work was featured in Observers of Change: Art from the UAE (1971–2025), drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation at Etihad Museum, Dubai (2025–2026). Other recent exhibitions include Private World at Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2026); No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai (2025); and his solo exhibition A Muslim Man at ATHR, Jeddah (2025). He is currently working towards his first European solo exhibition scheduled for 2027. His work is held in the collections of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Art Jameel Collection, Dubai and Jeddah, and Obayashi Private Collection, Tokyo, among others.
Oh god, I ask you for peace of mind is conceived as a window: an opening onto a quieter world in which the boundaries between the self and nature, earth and sky, begin to dissolve. Across the square canvas, a luminous landscape unfolds beneath an expansive sky of pastel blue, pink, yellow and green. Rather than simply marking the horizon, this shifting band of colour forms a bridge between earth and sky, giving the scene a sense of suspension and possibility. Palms and foliage frame the view, while birds drift through the air and a solitary figure on horseback moves quietly among grazing animals in the foreground. Farook’s layered application of spray paint and oil allows the colours to bleed softly into one another, creating a dreamlike atmosphere. The landscape resists a fixed narrative or a singular interpretation; instead, it offers a place into which the viewer might momentarily withdraw.
The title transforms the landscape from a place of escape into an invocation, a quiet appeal to God for inner peace. Created during a period in which the artist himself was searching for peace, the work extends that longing beyond the personal, expressing a hope for serenity for humanity more broadly. The open sky, drifting birds and pastoral stillness suggest a world in which the self is momentarily released from the pressures of everyday life and brought into closer relation with creation. Farook conceived the painting as an escape for himself, the viewer and the caretaker alike, with the intention of uplifting, relaxing and transporting. Looking thus becomes almost a meditative act: the landscape opens onto a space of contemplation and an encounter with something beyond the self.
Created as a sequel to the smaller A Peaceful Landscape Painted in the Spring (2024), the painting was completed over the course of a month across three locations, its evolving surface carrying something of that journey. What began as a search for peace becomes both refuge and prayer, a threshold between the earthly and the spiritual.
Born in 1981 in Dubai, Rami Farook is an Emirati self-taught interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, installation, performance and other media. His work is shaped by an interest in the possibilities and responsibilities of art, and by a process of conceptualisation, intervention and experimentation often pursued with emotional intensity and impulsivity. His artworks are manifestations of an inner monologue as he observes and processes everyday moments and turbulent current events, synthesising diverse materials and techniques with his emotional journey, worldview and thoughts. His more recent work has explored the relationship between God, faith, the self, family and society.
Farook’s work was featured in Observers of Change: Art from the UAE (1971–2025), drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation at Etihad Museum, Dubai (2025–2026). Other recent exhibitions include Private World at Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2026); No Trespassing at Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai (2025); and his solo exhibition A Muslim Man at ATHR, Jeddah (2025). He is currently working towards his first European solo exhibition scheduled for 2027. His work is held in the collections of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Art Jameel Collection, Dubai and Jeddah, and Obayashi Private Collection, Tokyo, among others.