A Dutch painter with a knack for raw emotion and a Turkish rug maestro who knots centuries of heritage into silk. Carel Richter, a Dutch painter based in Dubai, and Ahmet Çınar, Chairman of Çınar Rugs, have teamed up, and let me tell you, it’s a sight to behold. Their collaboration, born from late-night chats about art’s power, has birthed an exhibition at Çınar Sensperience Center on Al Khayat Avenue. Here, Richter’s bold canvases dance alongside Çınar’s intricate carpets, for the tales of culture, struggle, and beauty. We got the scoop on how these two visionaries shared their crafts, and trust me, you will want to swing by to see it yourself.
Carel Richter: Painting the Human Spirit
Carel Richter is far from an ordinary painter. Born in Amsterdam in 1967 to a Dutch biologist and a Guatemalan social scientist, his work indeed expresses depth. His childhood was spent moving through countries—from the Congo to many parts of the world—shaped by political, scientific, and artistic perspectives. “I paint what I’ve lived—human rights, conflict, the raw stuff of existence,” Richter shares, his voice calm yet fervent.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Art and Design in The Hague, an institution once attended by Vincent van Gogh. There, he trained under post-expressionist icons such as Lucerbert and Herman Brood. By 1987, he worked independently and forged his artistic path.
Richter’s early works were raw and dynamic, marked by scrubbed surfaces, scratched textures, and swirling motion. He adopted a more aggressive expressionism style in his later works, characterized by bold, spattered brushstrokes. “My work is universal—you see yourself in it,” he explains. His powerful pieces—like The Consensus, now hanging in the Dutch Parliament—grapple with themes of anxiety, isolation, and the complexity of human experience.
Richter has exhibited solo at celebrated venues such as Rome’s National Gallery of Modern Art, Berlin’s Arndt Gallery, and The Hague’s Pulchri Studio. He has received accolades in the Netherlands, Italy, and the Americas. His art is a mirror—raw, honest, and impossible to ignore. Painted primarily on antique wood sourced from Vietnam, the artworks present richly detailed portraits of the human spirit.
Ahmet Çınar, Knotting Heritage
Then there’s Ahmet Çınar, the guy who’s taken Çınar Rugs from a family workshop to a global name. For him, carpets are stories knotted in silk and wool. “Every rug holds a piece of our past,” Çınar shared, his eyes lighting up. Leading Çınar Rugs, founded in 1935, he has kept the double Turkish knot alive, a technique dating back to the Seljuks. His Kayseri factory has hundreds of artisans across 150 workshops, and Çınar is weaving carpets that grace mansions from Istanbul to Dubai.
Çınar’s mission? Keep rug-making thriving for future generations. He has treated each piece as art, with certificates detailing their tales. From the world’s largest double-knotted silk carpet to the thinnest, with 1,296 knots per square centimeter, Çınar’s creations are feats of human skill. “We are preserving culture,” he said, and you can feel the weight of that promise in Çınar’s knots.
A Friendship and a Vision
Richter and Çınar go way back, bonding over art during coffee talks in Dubai. “Carel sees the world through color; I see it through texture,” Ahmet added. Their chats always circled back to one idea: art bridges cultures. So, they hatched a plan for an exhibition, a place where Richter’s paintings and Çınar’s carpets could be presented together. “We wanted to create something new, a dialogue between our mediums,” Richter added, his enthusiasm infectious.
The result? A show at Çınar Sensperience Center that’s nothing short of magical. From every country he visited, Richter brought back the faces of women—marked by delight, hardship, and endurance—painted with his raw, artistic touch. Çınar countered with a century’s worth of carpets, each a chapter of Turkish heritage, from Anatolian motifs to Ottoman-inspired designs. They arranged the works so that colors and patterns complemented each other. A crimson stroke in Richter’s painting might mirror a pomegranate hue in Çınar’s rug. A pure visual conversation…
The Exhibition
Walking into Çınar Sensperience Center, you are hit with a kaleidoscope of emotion. Richter’s canvases, with their jagged lines and vivid hues, hang above Çınar’s carpets, their intricate knots whispering tales of Ottoman farewells or Seljuk victories. The painting’s palette aligns with a rug’s tones. “It’s like the art is talking to each other,”. The pairing feels haunting, yet hopeful.
The Çınar Museum’s dark, light-filtered space adds to the drama. Beams illuminate the carpets from behind, casting a glow with Richter’s textured strokes. “We wanted visitors to feel the stories, not just see them,” Ahmet explained. And they do. You can’t help but linger, tracing the threads and brushstrokes, each piece bridging Dutch expressionism and Turkish tradition.
Why You Should Visit
If you are in Dubai, carve out time for this exhibition. It is at Çınar Sensperience Center on Al Khayat Avenue, and it’s a rare chance to see two art forms—painting and rug-making—collide in such a fantastic way. Richter’s portraits pull you into the human condition, and Çınar’s carpets ground you in centennial craftsmanship. They tell stories of culture, survival, and beauty.
“Art’s a language everyone understands,” Richter said, summing it up. Çınar nodded, adding, “And our work’s here to keep that conversation going.”. We let these two masters show you what happens when paint meets thread. You won’t walk away unchanged…
Dubai gains a new creative dimension through the bond between Carel and Ahmet. Museum visitors welcome the color and artistry.