“Shifted Diagonal” repositions the diagonal not merely as a compositional device, but as a philosophical axis that reframes perception itself. In the heart of Dubai’s financial district, RARARES Gallery presents Shifted Diagonal, a compelling solo exhibition by Ruslan Gudiev, on view through 18 February 2026. Curated by Marina Baisel, the exhibition unfolds as a meditative yet dynamic exploration of abstraction, geometry, and perceptual transformation, hallmarks of Gudiev’s decades-long practice.
[Ruslan Gudiev, Shifted Diagonal (installation view). RARARES Gallery, Dubai, 2025-2026. Courtesy of the gallery.]
Inside the gallery, lines traverse the canvas with architectural discipline, yet they pulse with an almost musical vitality. Gudiev’s compositions balance analytic precision with intuitive rhythm, reflecting his multidisciplinary background in painting, architecture, design, and even music. Before dedicating himself fully to painting in the mid-1980s, Gudiev performed as a guitarist and bassist in jazz and pop ensembles, an influence that subtly reverberates through the syncopated movement and chromatic cadences of his visual structures.
Born in 1944 in Kobi and educated at the Tskhinvali Art School, Gudiev’s formative years were shaped by the dramatic landscapes of the Caucasus. The region’s vast horizons and tectonic tensions echo in his abstract terrains, where cosmic expanses, urban grids, and metaphysical fragments coexist. His practice consistently negotiates order and chaos, stillness and flux. In series such as A Fragment of the Big Diagonal, Dynamic City (2022), and City by Night (2019), geometry becomes a conduit for existential inquiry, translating lived and imagined environments into rhythmic spatial fields.
[Ruslan Gudiev, Shifted Diagonal (installation view). RARARES Gallery, Dubai, 2025-2026. Courtesy of the gallery.]
Shifted Diagonal amplifies this dialogue. The works on view reveal a heightened sensitivity to material and emotional nuance. Surfaces seem to vibrate between restraint and chromatic intensity; intersections feel both deliberate and spontaneous. The diagonal, once definitive, now appears displaced, tilted just enough to destabilize habitual modes of seeing. The result is an immersive encounter that encourages viewers to engage not only with form, but with the act of perception itself.
Gudiev’s international trajectory underscores the relevance of his evolving abstraction. His works have appeared in exhibitions such as A Network of Raindrops at Nadya Kotova Gallery in Antwerp (2025), In Dialogue: Abstraction & Figuration at Visioner Gallery in New York (2023), Eastern Bazaar at MMOMA (2019), and Breakfast in Rublyovka at Galerie Mitte in Bremen (2011). His artworks reside in significant private and public collections, including MMOMA and Walter Bischoff Galerie in Stuttgart, affirming his sustained presence within contemporary abstract discourse.
[Ruslan Gudiev, Shifted Diagonal (installation view). RARARES Gallery, Dubai, 2025-2026. Courtesy of the gallery.]
Within Dubai’s vibrant cultural landscape, Shifted Diagonal resonates as both continuity and transformation. It extends Gudiev’s lifelong investigation into geometry and metaphysics while offering a renewed spatial and emotional vocabulary. In doing so, it aligns seamlessly with the progressive programming of RARARES Gallery and the growing artistic dialogue within DIFC’s gallery district.
Ultimately, Shifted Diagonal is less about the movement of a line and more about the movement of awareness. By gently displacing a foundational axis, Gudiev opens a space where abstraction becomes experiential, where structure breathes, and perception itself is invited to shift.