“I Write in Colour”, the first solo exhibition of Emirati artist Dr. Najat Makki is on display at Aisha Alabbar Gallery in Dubai from March 24 to June 30. Dr. Makki is regarded as one of the scene's pioneers. Her experiments with color combinations and the use of fluorescent paints have contributed to the depth and richness of the scene's creative expression. Her obsession with the semantics of color and her deft brush was honed at a young age when she saw her father's spice shop's color chart of vibrant herbs. Thyme, henna, saffron, and curcumin enticed her with their fresh colors, textures, and scents. Makki's work is characterized by bold explorations of new natural and synthetic materials, inspired by her interest in philosophy, art, and music.

Makki's love and connection to nature are palpable. She spent her college years digging her hands in the dirt to knead and mould clay for her sculptures. This introduced her to a visual palette of soft earthy tones and cyan blue skies. The radiance of circular suns and stars, the brilliance of crescents, the precision of hexagonal beehives, the triangular mountain peaks and sand dunes, the color gradient in water bodies and stretches of land are all sources of inspiration for her.

Color and shape harmonize her impressions of natural phenomena with universal seismic themes, capturing and transfiguring the mysterious properties of the natural world onto canvas. Her obsession with nature's life-giving and nurturing qualities is most evident in the female figures. Makki is inspired by Ancient Egyptian relief carvings of female deities and mythological figures that represent tranquil harmony, wisdom, power, and rebirth, and is depicted in plain, abstract lines, which are collectively gathered.

She developed a name for Venus of Meleiha, after being commissioned by the Sharjah Art Museum to explore the artistic potential of the unseen. Her imagination travels back in time to conjure up visions of these females from bygone times. Influenced by the Meleiha Fort in Sharjah, where hundreds of coins and moulds with the heads of figures from ancient civilizations were found.

The celebratory figures are vocal in their appearance, compensating for what she sees as a lack of female representation in society. She's even kept a visual diary, which she refers to as Daily Diaries. The miniature, sketch-like drawings, made from scraps of paper and leftover paint from her larger works, capture an observation, a mood, or a brief thought. It helps her to play with various textures, shapes, designs, and ideas regularly, almost like a daily ritual.

A storyteller keeps a journal in words, but Makki keeps a journal in color. Najat Makki (born 1956 in Dubai) is a pioneering Emirati artist best known for her fascination with color and dreamlike, abstracted depictions of the UAE's natural landscape.

What began as a childish curiosity led her to Cairo, where she received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in relief sculpture and metal from the College of Fine Arts in Cairo (1982 and 1998). After returning to the UAE, the colorist and painter began experimenting with fluorescent paints while working at the Ministry of Education as a scenographer for children, introducing the Gulf to a style of abstract painting characterized by large fields of flat, solid colour spread across a flat image plane.

Her use of this material in contemporary art provided an unusual viewing experience, which was often accompanied by UVA lights that lifted matter from the canvas in a lurid dimensionality. In 1987, she premiered this exploration in a solo exhibition at the Al Wasl Club in Dubai, which indicated a turning point in her career and gained her regional recognition.

Makki later returned to Cairo to obtain a doctorate, becoming the first Emirati woman to formally specialize in art theory (2001), giving her a theoretical dimension to her practical aptitude and artistic flair. She has exhibited extensively in Egypt, France, Germany, India, Jordan, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, as well as in Egypt, France, Germany, India, Jordan, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, and the UK.

Makki was the only female artist among the 15 artists featured in Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi's exhibition 1980 – Today: Exhibitions in the UAE, the National Pavilion UAE, and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015). Aisha Alabbar Gallery is a forum that supports local and regional artists who work in a variety of creative genres. It was established in 2018.

Aisha Alabbar, the founder and director, has been celebrated for her contributions to the local art scene. She's also a well-known photographer.