Amar Dawod is an influential artist of the generally known as the “80’s generation” in Iraq. His seven years in Poland and life in Sweden, for the past thirty two years, have shaped his person and artwork into the Eclecticism style. Dawod draws from the different cultures and philosophies that he was exposed to and which he relished to fully absorb. One is compelled to know that fact as one experiences his work.  While he is a master of printmaking and sculpture, he regards painting to be the pages where he records and impregnates it with his philosophy. ‘If one day I decide to abandon painting, nobody will feel its impact; neither will society recognize the need for my work.”

Courtesy of Karim Gallery.

Open Cube by Hamra Abbas follows her earlier exhibition Kaaba Picture as a Misprint, shown at Lawrie Shabibi in 2014, featuring new prints and marble inlay works that focus on form, line, and colour in the context of religious iconography, architecture, and geometric abstraction. While referencing specific cultural metaphors, Abbas here is in dialogue with the conceptual work of Sol LeWitt, notably his engagement with the cube (i.e. Incomplete Open Cubes). Abbas’ intervention is a play on formalism within the context of Mughal art and design. The use of parchinkari (marble inlay – a compositional technique mastered by the Mughal artisans in the 17th century) gives new material identity and meaning to the existing variations on the cube by LeWitt, along with presenting a brand new variation in the form of a marble floor piece.

Courtesy of Lawrie Shabibi.

The second edition of FOCAL POINT art book fair will present printed matter by artists and publishers from the region and across the world. As part of the broader presentation, this year’s content will include a special focus on zines and comics.

Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual art book fair, FOCAL POINT, returns for its second edition with a wide range of printed matter and a larger representation of independent publishers. The platform caters to the interdisciplinary nature of art publishing and aims to present a focus on independent and alternative publishing practices presented alongside a select number of larger, more established publishing houses.

The three-day fair will feature regional and international artists and publishers who will present their content individually or within curated sections. As part of the broader presentation, this year’s content will include a special focus on zines and comics.

FOCAL POINT 2019 will take place from 14 to 16 November 2019 and will be returning to the heritage building of Bait Obaid Al Shamsi, in the Sharjah Arts Area.

Timings:
Thursday, 14 November 2019
4:00 – 10:00 pm
Friday, 15 November 2019
4:00 – 10:00 pm
Saturday, 16 November 2019
2:00 – 9:00 pm

Anima Gallery cordially invites you to the exhibition Intersection.

United by my interest in materiality and rich surface textures, I use my work to explore topical urban issues, documenting everyday city people who are often neglected and displaced in the drive toward excessive urbanization, rapid modern development and the growing global economy. The focus of this exhibition is on the global issues of migration [paintings] and free speech [sculptures]. I have employed materials such as Dhurrie Rugs, dyed and stitched heavy cotton in the paintings, bronze and stone in the sculptures.
The sculptures in this exhibition highlight the issues of free speech. These anonymous almost faceless sculptures in bronze and stone are created to start a discourse around freedom of speech, which is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community. Alimi Adewale.

Courtesy of Anima Gallery

This exhibition is organized with the exceptional support of the Musée national Picasso-Paris in the framework of “Picasso-Méditerranée,” and with the collaboration of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture.

With the generous contribution of Danièle Edgar de Picciotto and the support of Cyril Karaoglan.

Picasso et la famille explores Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) relationship to the notion of the family nucleus, encompassing everything from motherhood to children’s games, from the representation of conceptual intimacy to the numerous experiences of a fatherhood spent under the spotlight. Bringing together drawings, etchings, paintings, and sculptures, the exhibition spans seventy-seven years of creation, from 1895 to 1972, through a selection of works marking notable moments in the artist’s long emotional and family life, whose variety of forms illustrates the constant reinvention of his artistic vocabulary. For Picasso, the word “family” evokes, first and foremost, its Spanish meaning of a restricted, intimate and discreet circle, and a fertile source of inspiration for developing themes such as the love of femininity, the image of the couple, the mysteries of childhood, the simple pleasure of sharing, and the solemnity of private moments. Yet the family is also a means to explore even more universal themes such as the cruelty of war and the passing of time, and to reflect on the history of art and its motifs. Through this lens, theoeuvre of the Spanish master appears in a particular light, independent of periods and styles, rather evoking an immediacy of creation.

Picasso et la famille is curated by Camille Frasca and Yasmine Chemali.

Courtesy of Sursock Museum.

An Exploration of Our Digital Presence
This exhibition invites us to look at the various facets of our immaterial digital universe,
unravelling its impact on humanity through multidisciplinary art forms.

Opening Saturday, September 14, 2019 at 6 pm
MACAM launches its 2nd BIENNALE of Contemporary Art with the topic ‘Universal Data’.
Behind the massive rustic gate of the industrial museum, over 60 Lebanese and international artists will be showcasing multidisciplinary artworks that explore our use and interaction with this ever-increasing digitalized universe.

Artists from over twenty nationalities reflect on contemporary topics, such as access to information, digital identity, freedom of expression and online communities. The featured artworks challenge our perspective on , making it more tangible through art installations, paintings, sculptures, videos, digital and live performance art.

In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, artists have been asked to reflect on how these articles apply (if at all) in this new digital era and on how access to data has influenced our perception of the world.

These questions have birthed thought-provoking and inquisitive works of art about hacking, security leaks, the fragility of manipulation of data and equal access to data, amongst others. A vast subject worth exploring more in-depth.

The new season at the Palazzo Cini Gallery opens with an exceptional exhibition: the first solo show ever staged in Italy by Adrian Ghenie (b. 1977), entitled The Battle between Carnival and Feast.

Following significant projects in prestigious venues, such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Venice Biennale and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fondazione Cini hosts a show by the highly acclaimed Romanian painter in an unprecedented dialogue with the rooms and history of the house-museum of the Palazzo Cini. For the occasion, Ghenie exhibits a series of nine stunning paintings, some on show for the first time, inspired by the history of Venice, but always linked to the more controversial, darker issues of today’s world. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Courtesy of Palazzo Cini Gallery