New Season of Exhibitions in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi
Lately it’s been difficult for me to feel excited about exhibitions in the UAE, especially when one starts to notice exhibitions, talks or workshops are derivatives of previously held exhibitions, talks or workshops at other institutions in the country.
There seems to be a lack of efforts or imagination in coming up with new ideas and/or working with new people. One ends up seeing the same names of artists/curators on rotation as if there’s a shortage, or lots of publicity elevating curators and artists who don’t have enough experience (in life or in the arts), and sidelining ones who do. Not to mention the frequent erasure of certain local art histories, or claims of being the first (especially by the fresh of the plane crowd), or art language used by institutions that are exclusionary.
But…on a slightly positive note, it’s a new season, and I’m happy to say there are a few exhibitions that I am actually looking forward to visiting. I’ve listed them in the order of closing dates and included extracts from the exhibition websites.
I will start with one that will actually end this month (it opened in May), and I strongly suggest you don’t miss it. It’s one of my favourite exhibitions of the year.
Towards Time. Works by Zara Mahmood
Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah
Until September 29, 2022
Towards Time introduces Zara Mahmood's practice with the series Composite (2013 -2014), belonging to a period that marks her preoccupation with overlooked objects and forms that allude to the human body.
Mahmood showcases a series of visuals, accentuating notions of what was, is and becomes. The images evoke parallels to the rituals and routines that constitute life on a daily basis; that leave no physical residue, impressions or marks. Using different forms of printing techniques on fragile surfaces that are prone to disintegration, Mahmood’s visual language has grown to embody modes of mark making born from videos stills of transient moments.
Ybna Al3eid
Bayt Almamzar, Dubai
Until October 16, 2022 (Friday-Sunday 3.00-7.00PM only)
“Ybna Al3eid” is a Gulf Arabic phrase roughly meaning taking the cake, or rather, bringing it in the first place. Translated literally as “we brought [the] Eid,” it is when actions turn into a foolish spectacle, humiliation, and/or dire consequences, i.e. partaking in activities uncustomary to Gulf cultures, hiding realities, or twisting familial mythologies It is a phrase indulging in the forbidden fruits of mischief and scandal–a humor-infused phrase, yet harboring a sinister undertone. Named after this colloquial term, this exhibition pokes fun at these ideas, engaging them critically and satirically.
“Ybna Al3eid” considers the works of fourteen socio-politically-creative artists that explore themes of Arabian decolonization, bodily deviation, child-like liberation, and anthropological investigations. These works are the complete psychosis of trying, and failing, to construct an image of supposed youthfulness. It is rebellion not for action, but for existence.
https://swalif.store/pages/ybna-al3eid
https://www.baytalmamzar.com
I Shall Never Tire of Finding an Escape
XVA Gallery, Dubai
Until October 16, 2022
“I SHALL NEVER TIRE OF FINDING AN ESCAPE” is a photography group exhibition, which highlights passionate photographers in their search for an escape from our relentless zeitgeist.
…when physical escape is not a valid option, escapism is the alternative – often designed to protect oneself, remove the uncertainty, and take us into a safer mental place. Through their lenses and the use of their imagination, they transcend boundaries between story, form and technique.
This exhibition explores the idea of escapism from the perspective of four artists: Sarah Brahim, Maitha Hamdan, Menat el Abd and Ammar Al Banna, – narrated under three chapters: From and to the self, Obeyed to Essence and Finally, Round we Spin.
Black: Rabee Kiwan
Fann A Porter, Dubai
Until October 16, 2022
The exhibition includes recent works by the artist revealing the human face and body in various states of heightened expression all painted with varying amounts of black paint. The figures, often forlorn and melancholic, sometime with facial features and sometimes without, seemingly contemplate with awe, surprise, sadness and even shock, the various rapid effects of change that are affecting the world around them.
https://www.fannaporter.com/exhibitions/45-black-rabee-kiwan/overview/
Shamma Al Amri - So to Speak
Tashkeel, Dubai
Until October 25, 2022
The exhibition explores Shamma's ongoing research into language, meaning and social behaviour. It is first public outcome by a participant of the Critical Practice Programme 2022.
During her time on the programme, she examined the specific use of language in oaths and took this as a starting point to develop her own ‘artist oath’. This led her to study habitual and customary words and to explore their legitimacy across contexts to reveal their degree of elasticity, transformation or resistance.
Eman Al Hashemi - square: not square
Aisha Al Abbar Gallery, Dubai
Until November 5, 2022
Eman Al Hashemi’s first solo exhibition addresses the effects of waiting by isolating different square-based objects and utensils from their everyday usage and subjecting them to surreal, slightly funny tests of time and multiplicity.
In multiple series of works made in ceramics, stitched and compressed paper, and concertinaed books, the artworks highlight the differences that emerge from sameness. Square plates are stacked up, squares form uneven grids, and spoons sit alongside each other in a parody of identical manufacture.
https://www.aishaalabbar.art/exhibitions/17-square-not-square-eman-al-hashemi/press_release_text/
Michael Kakowitz - The invisible enemy should not exist (Northwest Palace of Kalhu, Room S, Western Entrance)
Green Art Gallery, Dubai
Until November 23, 2022
The invisible enemy should not exist is an ongoing project centering on threatened, destroyed, and missing cultural heritage. Michael Rakowitz began this work in 2007, reappearing artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the US-led invasion in 2003. Drawing from a database of reference images and information, the sculptures are constructed using papier-mâché made of Arabic-English newspapers and West Asian food packaging found in diasporic grocery stores in Chicago. The invisible enemy should not exist is a translation of “Aj ibur shapu,” the name of the Processional Way that ran through Nebuchadnezzar’s Ishtar Gate in Babylon.
Navjot Altaf: Pattern
Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai
Until December 9, 2022
Pattern marks the first solo exhibition of Navjot Altaf in the Arabian Peninsula. Featuring site-specific installations, sculptures, videos, drawings and photo prints, the exhibition foregrounds Navjot’s longstanding commitment to issues of climate-change, ecology and feminism and the challenges they face in the digital age.
Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular
Sharjah Art Foundation
Until December 11, 2022
Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular is one of the first major exhibitions to provide a substantial survey of modern and contemporary art from South Asia engaging with popular culture. Spanning works from the mid-twentieth century to the present, the exhibition will showcase artists addressing complex issues facing the self and society through irony, play and humour.
Weaving an intergenerational dialogue through more than 100 artworks by artists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the diaspora, Pop South Asia navigates multiple and diverse themes. The exhibition spotlights artists who intervene in the aesthetics of print, cinematic and digital media, alongside those engaging with devotional practices, crafts and folk culture; it presents artists addressing modes of local capitalism, from large-scale industries to vernacular ‘bazaars’, in company with those commenting on identity, politics and borders.
Vantage Point Sharjah 10
Al Hamriyah Studios, Hamriyah, Sharjah
Until December 11, 2022
Vantage Point Sharjah (VPS) is an annual exhibition that supports photographers from the region and around the world. Introduced in 2013 to cultivate public engagement with photography as an artistic medium, VPS has evolved into a dynamic platform that embraces multiple approaches to photography, from photojournalism and photo essays to experimental work in both analogue and digital forms.
The open call for VPS 10 invited works that celebrate photography's ability to perceive social realities and the diversity of contemporary lives through different perspectives and forms of visual storytelling. Works by 66 artists from around the globe, selected from more than 450 applications, are being shown in the exhibition.
http://sharjahart.org/sharjah-art-foundation/exhibitions/vantage-point-sharjah-10
Khaleej Modern - Pioneers and Collectives in the Arabian Peninsula
The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi
Until December 11, 2022
A historical survey of twentieth century modern art movements across the Arabian Peninsula, collectively known in Arabic as the “Khaleej.” Based on Stoby’s PhD research, it traces the region’s ‘pre-boom era’ of the twentieth century through 2008 and examines the evolution of visual art movements as the discovery of oil began to transform the region. It delves into the shifting understanding of public and private spaces and their relationship to national identity as expressed through art practices.
For Khaleej Modern, Stoby traces local art histories contextualized by deeply rooted traditions, the ongoing modernization process and evolving national identities. Foregrounding the importance of community and early art institutions, the exhibition brings to life the curator’s research on the artistic pioneers and collectives that sprang up in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
https://www.nyuad-artgallery.org/en_US/our-exhibitions/main-gallery/khaleej-modern/
An Ocean in Every Drop
Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
Until April 2, 2022
Currently, water is in crisis; simultaneously scarce, through drought, and threateningly over-abundant, through floods and rising sea levels.
How can we understand this life force through its production of myth and its anchoring of spiritual beliefs? Can connecting to a range of world views relating to bodies of water as living beings transform our own approach to the climate emergency?
Bringing together works from around the globe that explore human relationships to water, ‘An Ocean in Every Drop’ asks us to think with water, following its flows through the past to inform our present.
https://jameelartscentre.org/whats-on/an-ocean-in-every-drop/