25 January – 22 April 2018
Press view: Wednesday 24 January 2018, 10.00-13.00

London’s Hayward Gallery will stage the first major retrospective in a UK institution of the work of acclaimed German photographer Andreas Gursky (Germany, 1955) from 25 January 2018.

Gursky, known for his large-scale, often spectacular pictures that portray emblematic sites and scenes of the global economy and contemporary life, is widely regarded as one of the most significant photographers of our time.

The exhibition includes some of the artist’s most well known works including Paris, Montparnasse (1993), an immense and iconic photograph showing a seemingly endless block of flats; and Rhine II (1999/2015) a sleek digitally-tweaked vision of the river as a contemporary minimalist symbol. Kamiokande (2007) featuring the vast underground water tank within the Kamioka Nucleon Decay Experiment, Japan; and May Day IV (2000/2014) depicting hundreds of revellers at Germany’s long-running Mayday techno music festival. Often employing a bird’s-eye perspective, these large-format pictures – which rival the scale of monumental paintings – boast an abundance of precisely captured details, all of which are uncannily in focus.

Source: southbankcentre.co.uk

Opening reception: Thursday 8 March from 18:00 to 21:00

The Story of the Rubber Tree is an ongoing project that examines the histories of Beirut’s abandoned houses, frequently re-inhabited and invaded by rubber trees. Once planted to provide shade in urban gardens, rubber trees now grow wild in the absence of people to manage them, undermining the foundations of the houses they occupy. Abed Al Kadiri’s new painting, sculpture, and video works trace the complex familial narratives and memories embedded in such spaces, taking the tree as witness to their histories.

Consciously unfolding as chapters in a narrative, Al Kadiri reflects on the social, economic, and physical transformations that Beirut has undergone in the last century, through the prism of a single family’s home.

The Blacksmith and the Rubber Tree (2017-18), is a triptych of large-scale paintings that interweave moments of utopia, labor, and isolation. The structure of the storybook is the architecture for intermittent interaction between the blacksmith, his house, and the rubber tree in his garden. Though Al Kadiri works predominantly in painting, his use of pencil and graphite reflects the provisional nature of such stories, and the suspension of time.

The installation, In Dreams: Branch is the Brother (2017-18), comprises of a sculpture cast in bronze, directly from the fragments of five rubber trees gathered from five different houses across Beirut. The rubber chair is a replica of the original metal chair found in the blacksmith’s house. The work reflects on the branch and the tree as symbols for the familial, connection, and the personal; their material mirrors the work of the blacksmith himself.

Al Kadiri’s broader practice examines thematics of violence, cultural heritage, migration, and belonging; The Story of the Rubber Tree explores the changes wrought on Beirut’s urban and personal fabrics, and the tree’s ability to address intimate shared histories.

Source: sursock.museum

Tabari Artspace is delighted to present a series of nine new sculptures by artist Khaled Zaki, a major pioneer of modernist sculpture in Egypt. These marble works explore the relationship between form and material in the context of geopolitical unrest in the Middle Eastern region and reflect Khaled’s aspirations for a brighter, more hopeful future.

In the exhibition, the artist seeks to capture the essence of his subjects with minimal formal elements, while retaining the integrity of pure white marble. This ethereal colouring suggests a blank canvas from which we may rebuild and start afresh. Each of the sculptures consists of six separate marble components arranged in varying compositions to represent figures in states of fear, defensiveness or repose. The resulting works seem simultaneously modern and ancient, seeking to illicit a diverse emotional response born from the artist’s investigation of the infinite possibilities of the natural form.

Inspired by the fragments of buildings and shrapnel littering the streets in the aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the Egyptian protests of 2013 as well as the ongoing unsettlement across Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the artist attempts to symbolically rebuild crumbled societies;to restore order and shape a better future. This is encompassed by the titular concept of rebirth.

Source: tabariartspace

Elmarsa Dubai is pleased to present Unknown program, a solo exhibition of multimedia works by Tunisian conceptual artist Ali Tnani who offers an examination of social issues in post-revolutionary Tunisia through his multi-disciplinary practice that draws equally from installation as drawing, and photography, curated by Marie Cantos & Aziza Harmel.

It is a well-known truth that the world is connected as never before. It therefore comes as no surprise that we are obsessively trying to keep up with a relentless flow of incoming data. Our efforts to do so are in vain, however information is somehow almost immediately neutralized or displays only a short term impact, due to the fluctuating nature of the internet. There are informational tombs, lost in the cyberspace. Ghosts that materialize in traces.

It is precisely this spectral trace around which Ali Tnani’s exhibition Unknown program gravitates. Documents are artifacts or traces of human making, action, or thought surviving into the present. Monuments are documents that have a certain notion of urgency in our present and demand a recognition. Monuments are also related to an urgency in the past that we wish to evoke in order to remember or to neutralize the trauma that was caused.

The drawings, photographs and installations in this exhibition conjure up the document and the monument. Moreover they evoke the crossings and the traffic of what moves in the spaces between. These spaces are the artist’s materialized reflections on Other Spaces or what we could name Heterotopia. Heterotopia is a concept developed by Michel Foucault describing places that are simultaneously real and imaginary. These are spaces of an ambiguous utopia, with the ability to physically manifest.

Source: www.galerielmarsa.com

Featured image: Ali Tnani, Impersonal Memory, 2018, Drawings and mixed media installation, 120×80 cm.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, DUBAI – The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation (JPNF) is proud to
present Jene Highstein: Space and Place a solo exhibition showcasing the artist’s seminal sculptures as well as works on paper from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Portrait Jene Highstein Photo David Seidner

Four Forged Steel, St Etienne, 1977-78. Photo Jean-Paul Najar

Black Sphere, cement on steel armature Les Bords de Seine, Paris. Photo Andrea Sarti

A key figure of sculptural abstraction, Highstein used bronze, concrete, steel and wood to create primal and organic forms. His quasi-manufactured sculptures create a dialogue between raw materials and biomorphism, stressing the importance of the object’s presence within a surrounding space and its impact on the viewer. The solidity of Highstein’s sculptures complement the delicacy of his works on paper. His drawings of intense bone black pigment and Chinese ink function as maquettes for the sculptural forms and clearly map the evolution of his sculptural abstraction.

Source: jpnajarfoundation.com

Featured image: Four Forged Steel, St Etienne 1978, Deutsch Foundation, Lausanne. Photo Magali Prod’Hom.

Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde is pleased to present German-Iranian artist Haleh Redjaian’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, entitled Inhabiting the Grid. In “Grids,” Rosalind Krauss’ authoritative essay on the subject, she dogmatically positions the grid as the modernist tool par excellence, a formal structure that firmly and finally expels from the realm of the visual, all traces and possibilities of literature and narrative, reality and illusion. Though grids recur throughout Haleh Redjaian’s oeuvre, she has consistently experimented with novel ways of challenging this dogma, creating art that remains minimal and non-objective but creates space for the expression of individual subjective experiences like memory, emotion and affect.

Redjaian’s most recent work has been influenced by her reading of Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space. In it, Bachelard develops a unique approach to understanding and analysing built space by combining phenomenology’s embodied subjectivity with the poetics of everyday life and individual experience. He begins his analysis with the house, arguing that it is always more than a purely functional configuration of orthogonal planes. Embodied and affective experiences, make the structural rigidity of such spaces undeniably flexible, allowing room for poetry. Retained as memories and reactivated through feats of imagination, such subjective experiences of space are retrieved through a unique cognitive faculty that is a powerful combination of the two, what Bachelard calls “daydreams.” Redjaian approaches the grid the way Bachelard reads the house. In her drawings on paper, textile works, wall drawings, and installations using thread, the grid is never entirely dominant or only functional. Its authoritative logic is subtly and repeatedly challenged. It does not appear as inert, rational and objective but as dynamic, partial, and contingent.

Source: www.ivde.net

Featured image: In Parallel, 2018, Acrylic, colour pencil, graphite and gold leaf on grid paper, 43 x 60 cm.

Louvre Abu Dhabi explores humanity’s quest to understand and represent the world in its second special exhibition, opening 23 March

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 12 March 2018 – Globes: Visions of the World curated by Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) will open to the public on 23 March and run until 2 June 2018. Louvre Abu Dhabi’s second special exhibition will explore the history of the spherical representation of the world and its scientific instruments from antiquity to the present day. A hundred and sixty works from the collections of Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and outstanding loaned works will be on display.

Ewer with astrological iconography showing the 7 planets in the houses of the 12 signs of the zodiac, Herat (Afghanistan), c. 1220, Brass inlaid with silver. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi © Louvre Abu Dhabi / Agence Photo F

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650–1718), Printed terrestrial globe Venice (Italy), 1688, Paper, wood and brass. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France © Bibliothèque nationale de France

Jérôme Martinot (1671–1725), Geocentric armillary sphere demonstrating the Ptolemaic system made mobile by a clockwork mechanism Paris (France), between 1709 and 1718 , Gilded copper and wood . Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France © Bibliothèque nationale de France

More than 40 globes and spheres, rare archaeological remains, magnificent scripts, astrolabes and splendid world maps will immerse visitors in the 2500 years’ history of representing the world. The exhibition is curated by Catherine Hofmann, Chief Curator at Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), and François Nawrocki, Chief Curator and Deputy Director at Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris.

The exhibition’s innovative scenography designed by Laurence Fontaine in spherical shapes guides the visitors into a chronological tour from Antiquity to the present day. Starting with the display of Vincenzo Coronelli’s majestic globes and Jérôme Martinot’s armillary sphere, the artists Jean-Luc and Patricia Boivineau have created an artistic vision of the stars and constellations which can be seen in Abu Dhabi’s sky during the winter season.

Source: louvreabudhabi.ae

Featured image: Celestial sphere, c. 200 BCE , Engraved silver, Paris, Collection privée Kugel © Paris, Collection privée Kugel

A Discourse on Materials

Joy Mardini Design Gallery is proud to present ‘Dialogues’ a duo show featuring Hala Matta and Paola Sakr. Two designers whose practice is framed by their constant enquiry into the nature of material properties and their distinctive applications in design.

The exhibition stems from a conversation between Hala and Paola around their craft, their personal experience with materiality and the strange allure of accidental geometry.‘Dialogues’ encourages us to look into how their individual approaches towards the treatment of materials influence their creative process.

Abat-Jour Lamp _ Hala Matta

Table Lamp _ Hala Matta

Installation Shot

Each designer will unveil a series of products, defined by the technical and unconventional application of contrasting mediums. The collection by Hala Matta will question the mimetic value of ceramics through a new perspective on functionality, stepping away from the conventional application of stoneware as vessels and containers. Paola Sakr will explore the relationship between space and light, playing with notions of transparency, reflection and the intersection of contrasting textures. Her series of objects will delve into our daily routine of dressing and undressing, revealing and hiding, through a harmonious blend of contrasting materials.

Source: jmdesigngallery.com

Featured Image: Coat Hanger, Paola Sakr

The Sursock Museum is proud to present, for the first time in Lebanon, an exhibition of photographs by Cy Twombly. The exhibition comprises of thirty photographs of subjects including intimate spaces, landscapes, and natural subjects, taken between 1985 and 2008.

From his days as a student at Black Mountain College during the early 1950s until his death in 2011 at the age of 83, Twombly captured his daily life in photographs. He recorded the verdant landscapes of Virginia and the coasts of Italy; close-up details of ancient buildings and sculptures; studio interiors; and still lifes of objects and flowers.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Twombly used specialized copiers to enlarge his Polaroid images on matte paper, resulting in subtle distortions that approximate the timeless qualities of his paintings and sculptures with their historical and literary allusions.

Source: sursock.museum

Featured image: Cy Twombly, Untitled (detail), 2002, Color dry-print, Edition 4/6. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates LTD. © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Courtesy Gagosian.

Gravity is what attracts Amal’s characters to their universe. Her silhouettes of women are bolder and larger than in her earlier paintings. Her strokes are soft in places and thick and defiant in others. Her colors are pale and serene with vibrant strong layers. Her characters are still women looking into the future, but now interacting with their environment. We see them as part of an interactive society, present and moving forward.

Amal Al Aathem speaks for women. Through the subtle messages in her paintings you can trace the development of women’s role and their place in a fast changing environment and a global universe.

The paintings in ‘Gravity’ are challenging, colorful and proud.

The exhibition will be on display until 30th June 2018.

Source: animagallery.com

Featured image: Amal Al Aathem, Universe 1, 2018, Mixed Media, 200 x 180 cm.

Cancer et Soleil Rouge, deux titres pour une même œuvre, la première, qui symbolise à la fois la mort et le début d’une aventure. 1964 sera l’année décisive. L’envol vers une autre vie, loin des sentiers battus, loin de toutes obligations. Liberté et quête de soi.

Une ancienne ferme se transforme en atelier, excentrée, en bordure de la propriété sur laquelle se trouve la maison familiale; première étape d’un voyage atypique.

Un choix de vie, comme le sont les abaya, ces robes amples qui deviennent les vêtements quotidiens, les cours à l’Université Américaine de Beyrouth, les nouveaux amis aux voix graves, aux rires tonitruants et à l’imagination fertile. Les grandes tablées du dimanche midi ouvrent de nouveaux horizons tout en offrant une nette coupure avec le passé bourgeois et politique de la demeure.

Les débuts d’Huguette Caland en 1964 prennent racines dans la poésie d’une maison entourée de jardins fleuris, d‘arbres fruitiers, des terrains encore rocailleux de Kaslik et la mer, dans la rencontre avec John Carswell et Arthur Frick, dans son groupe d’amis proches Helen Khal, Waddah Faris, Aref el Rayess mais aussi  Moustapha Ariss, May Joumblat et d’autres, nombreux, qui soutiendront chacun à sa manière les débuts de l’artiste qui émerge dans cette personnalité hors du commun.

Sans rupture aucune, un chemin se dessine. Avec sa force tranquille Huguette Caland produira alors un travail en rapport avec ses cours, des œuvres abstraites et géométriques, des essais de couleurs, travaillant  les pigments et différentes techniques, ainsi que des portraits.

L’artiste maintiendra avec cette époque un lien qui fournira tout au long de sa carrière des points de repères et des références qui seront des thèmes récurrents, exprimés différemment selon l’humeur et son lieu d’ancrage.

Brigitte Caland

The show is from April 11 until May 10, 2018.

Featured image: Huguette Caland. Untitled, 1964, oil on canvas, 71 x 50 cm.

“Know Thyself” is a divine message by Allah that has been conveyed to mankind in multiple ways since their creation. Allah has blessed all of us with an intellect and stressed in His divine message to understand the soul of humanity for living a better life. For this meaningful quest, Farid-ud-din Attar once said, “When you fail to find yourself, to know yourself here, how will you be able to understand the secret of your existence when you die?

The current body of work from the series of “Know Thyself” expresses the urge of an awakened soul to search for the Divine spark within. This underlying conceptual quest guided to unfold the actual means of being throughout the creative process. Symbolic visual vocabulary is used in terms of image making that focuses on observation with the blend of experimentation. The metaphorical expression significantly stimulates the contemplation of soul through the conceptual analysis of Khudi (A philosophical concept presented by the eminent poet of Sub-continent Allama Muhammad Iqbal). For this expedition of deciphering hidden dimensions of truth, minimalistic tonal variety and linear impressions are used with the metaphorical representation of a Rose. Know Thyself is to understand the goodness of our soul by awakening it. The symbolic imagery of a rose represents an awakened soul. It intends to evoke the purpose of our lives which is to spread goodness similarly as the rose is meant to spread its fragrance in its surroundings for making it fresh and lively.

According to Socrates contentment is achieved through experiencing the kind of life that best serve the nature of soul. He believed that the goodness of soul can only be seen when human beings examined their daily consciousness through reasoning and questioning with other human beings. The truth that could be unveiled through the knowing process has the power to elevate spiritual light in the human soul. I believe that this meaningful visual discourse needs to be realized by the society that has the power to uplift the intellectual content of each and every individual for the betterment of a society in the contemporary age.

Source: artchowk.com

Featured image: Farah Khan, Untitled, Mixed media on Paper, 17.78 x 43.18 cm.

For the last few months, it has become a part of our daily routine to watch or hear of things related to political campaigns, constantly seeing billboards filled with faces we have come to know, some of which are new, and some of which have been ruling for a decade or two now. To Jacques, this exhibition examines the presence of the politicians’ portraits in our daily lives. It questions the circulation of those images and the response of the public to these visual impressions. By highlighting the complex inter relationships between the individual and the represented images and other socio- historical/political factors, he is also highlighting the contradictory perceptions of freedom. Throughout some of the works, Jacques reconstructs the destiny of these political election posters after the elections are done and gone. The ones who won’t make it are erased, ripped off the wall and forgotten, until the next campaigns are in order of course. But the ones who did make it will be implemented in our daily lives once more.

“Those who danced were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Nietzsche

On the 19th of April at Asia House, Iranian-American artist Darvish Fakhr will inaugurate his latest exhibition, No Man’s Land, with a talk by acclaimed British dancer and choreographer Akram Khan MBE and a silent disco event in celebration of artistic freedom, movement and space.

Movement is a key part of creative practice for Fakhr, who refers to his studio as his cosmic gym, an aphorism reflective of his process, which involves working with his body as well as paint. Through predominantly oil paintings and charcoal drawings, the exhibition is inspired by Iranian protest installation The Stone Garden and examines ideas about space, boundaries and the tension caused by power imbalance.

Darvish Fakhr dancing

No Man’s Land references the remarkable story of the deaf-mute Iranian farmer Darvish Esfandiarpour and his silent rebellion against the land reforms of the 1960s. When his land was confiscated during the White Revolution of the Shah of Iran’s regime in 1963, he enacted a unique form of resistance. Over almost have a century, he assembled heavy stones on dead trees, giving birth to the Stone Garden – a site of both devastation and rebirth where he performed ceremonial dances as part of his unique emotional response.

Source: asiahousearts.org

Featured image: Desert 9, 100 by 150cm, charcoal, 2017