eL Seed paints a wall in the Heart of Sharjah

The view down Bank Street as street artist eL Seed paints the words of a local poet on an abandoned building. Courtesy of Anna Seaman / The National

Finally someone gave eL Seed a wall to paint. I am pleased to report that since late last week, eL Seed has been hard at work painting this wall in the Heart of Sharjah area. Thanks to the Maraya Art Centre, supported by Shurooq, fans of eL Seed in the UAE can finally see some of his work in the arena where he is most comfortable - the public street.

Snaking up the facade of this abandoned building on Sharjah’s Bank Street, eL Seed has painted the words of a poem by ‘Bu Sneeda’, an Iraqi poet who lived and worked all his life in Sharjah and who reportedly taught a lot of the local people how to write calligraphy.

His trademark pattern and colour has caught the attention of all those who pass by and hopefully, will continue to do so until the building is demolished in two or three years.

Giuseppe Moscatello, the director of the Maraya Art Centre, says he is really pleased to be able to bring eL Seed's work into the public arena. "This is the first launch of the new initiative that we are starting called Jederiya, which means wall in Arabic," he says. "The idea behind it is that we want to beautify some areas of Sharjah and create landmark buildings. We thought the best person to launch was eL Seed – because he has become an established street artist here in the Gulf and even though he has been in the UAE for a long time, he has never done anything on a public wall."

Bank Street is between the Sharjah Art Foundation and the new SAF spaces, so it is also an important area in terms of art.

I am really happy to have a permanent reminder of eL Seed’s presence in the UAE and I am sure I am not the only one. Hurray for street art!