Featuring a collection of over ten paintings created between 2022 and 2024, A Curious Case explores the talents of Syrian artist Nouman Issa. Currently based in Beirut, Issa was born in Damascus in 1972, he studied and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Damascus University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2001 with a  bachelor’s degree in painting. Nouman’s work is particularly fascinating because of how much the artist’s work has evolved within the same medium. The use of color and even brush strokes evoke an element of storytelling that allows the viewer to not only to look but also “read'' into the subject matter. While it may be difficult to pinpoint the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of the falling figures, familiar everyday objects such as flashlights, staircases, and dogs, render the work relatable on a human and existential level.

While the artist’s preferred medium is acrylic, a few of the selected works are done in oil but all of them have one thing in common and that is the search for answers. Flashlights try to find an answer to philosophical questions about life and mankind's existence and its struggle to overcome obstacles and challenges presented by life and represented by a recurring staircase. The staircase poses difficulty and offers us a path towards the answers humans look for. A path that is capable of tripping us up and sending us falling back to the start, only for us to repeat the process all over again.