A Momentum for the Horizon: Artist Room: Alaa Itani

A Momentum for the Horizon is a visual meditation on the horizon as both boundary and promise, a visible line that remains perpetually distant. Bringing together reverse glass paintings of horizons, blurred landscapes, and moving cloud formations, Alaa Itani explores landscape as acts of temporal displacement.  

This sense of instability is embedded in Itani’s process. Working with reverse glass painting, he applies ink to the glass before selectively wiping and erasing areas of the painted surface. Clouds, air, and expanses of sky emerge through these acts of subtraction, allowing unobstructed light to pass through what has been removed. At once transparent and obstructive, physically present yet visually elusive. Light travels through the transparencies, casting shadows and producing doubles of the painted image, appearing fainted, partial, or momentarily displaced. The landscapes are not tied to specific locations or viewpoints. Instead, Itani approaches the horizon as a recurring condition: something perceived but never reached.