KLAB

Ridikkuluz opens an eight-painting exhibition that refuses polite compliance with the post-9/11 order. These epic, apocalyptic works force a reckoning with the violence that made us—rejecting the demand to defang Arab and Muslim identity of its political urgency and bite.

Ridikkuluz is a New York native whose practice centers canine figures as a key to understanding dehumanization. The work draws a direct lineage from 9/11 through the War on Terror's use of dogs as torture instruments to 10/7 and the IDF's K-9 unit Oketz, turning hounds into weapons. The paintings echo mid-century Arab modernism—Samir Rafi's scenes of bestiality as patriarchal violence—while thruming with a carnality that exceeds all logic or utility.

The exhibition knowingly acknowledges it will be misread: you might mistake a Christian hand for a Muslim one, or confuse horror for humor. Ridikkuluz doesn't correct misrepresentation but exploits it, forcing viewers to contend with what we do when we enter a world where dogs are deities and the line between human and inhuman dissolves. Opening September 11, 7–9 PM.