Print Friends [Fall 2026] brings together fourteen artists from across the Arab world, invited to respond to Arab Nation Street), a painting by Qatari artist Yousef Ahmad. Participants were asked to engage with the work through its content, visual language, or aesthetic qualities, translating their individual responses into limited-edition 50 × 70 cm silkscreen posters.
The exhibition takes as its point of departure Arab Nation Street, a 10 × 2 metre oil painting on canvas by Qatari artist Yousef Ahmad. The work reflects the intellectual, political, and cultural atmosphere of the Arab world during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the aftermath of the 23 July Revolution in Egypt and the rise of Arab nationalism.
The revolutionary ideas associated with Arab nationalism spread rapidly throughout the region, reaching the Gulf and influencing everyday life in Qatar and neighbouring countries. This ideological shift extended beyond political discourse and the private sphere into the visual landscape of cities. The names of shops, clubs, institutions, signage, and other elements of the urban environment began to reflect ideas of Arab unity, collective identity, and youth empowerment.
Names such as Al-Orouba Bookshop (مكتبة العروبة) and Youth Barber (حلاق الشباب) embodied the language and aspirations of that period. Traces of this era remain visible today, as seen in names such as Port Said Grocery, (بقالة بورسعيد) which references the Egyptian city of Port Said.
By taking Yousef Ahmad’s painting as a shared point of departure, the exhibition invites a contemporary generation of Arab practitioners to revisit this historical memory through their own perspectives. The resulting works do not seek to reproduce the original painting, but rather to interpret, question, abstract, or extend its themes and visual language. Together, the fourteen responses form a new collective archive—one that connects historical memory, contemporary Arab visual culture, and the material and tactile language of printmaking.
