Agenda

Known for her large scale, colorful ‘trapunto’ works, Pacita Abad (1946-2004) was a Philippine-American artist whose prolific oeuvre spanned continents and ranged from abstract forms to social realist depictions of everyday life in the U.S.A, the Philippines and elsewhere. Having lived and travelled widely across Asia and many parts of the world, Abad’s work is an amalgamation of techniques and subject matter drawn from her lived experiences and mostly worked in her signature trapunto technique of padding and stitching canvas before painting and layering it with textiles, printed objects and other materials such as jewelry, buttons, and shells.

This exhibition brings together a selection of her ‘trapunto’ paintings and is curated in collaboration with the Pacita Abad Art Estate and London based artist Pio Abad.

Born in the Philippines in 1946, Pacita Abad studied painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Arts Student League in New York.Her work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions including: Life in the Margins, Spike Island, Bristol (2020); Pacita Abad: A Million Things to Say, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (2018); Circles in My Mind, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (2003); Exploring the Spirit, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta (1996); The American Dream, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. (1994); Masks from Six Continents, Metro Art Center, Washington D.C. (1990); Pacita Abad: A Painter Looks at the World, Museum of Philippine Art, Manila (1984) and Assaulting the Deep Sea, Ayala Museum, Manila (1983).She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including: Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning,13th Gwangju Biennial (2021); SWEAT, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021); Whose Tradition?, Tate Liverpool (2021); The Crack Begins Within, 11th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2020); Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art, a travelling exhibition organised by the Asia Society, New York (1996); Beyond the Border: Art by Recent Immigrants, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (1994); La Segunda Bienal de la Habana (1986); and the 2nd Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum (1985).Her work can be found in the collections of Tate Modern, London; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., M+ Museum, Hong Kong, Art Jameel, Dubai and the National Gallery of Singapore.

She died in Singapore in 2004.

In his latest show opening at Galerie Sfeir-Semler in Hamburg, Lebanese artist Rayyane Tabet tackles themes of cultural appropriation and original context through the lens of the arabesque, a stylised ornamental pattern found in all genres of art. The word itself originally meant “in the Arabic style” in Italian. Today, it still indicates an ornamental design consisting of intertwined flowing lines but interestingly, does not exist in the Arabic language.

Language is shaped by values, cultures and societies to express subjective points of view. Over centuries languages have changed, and words have been developed to name anything new or foreign: the term Arabesque was therefore a purely European concept, coined to describe designs thought to have been encountered throughout the Arab world. Although these designs were at the core of artistic expression -in a region where figurative representation was prohibited- they were henceforth largely perceived as patterned crafts.

The exhibition opens with Découpages, a frieze of 114 cut-out sheets from an original 19th century manuscript by Jules Bourgoin (1838-1908). The French scholar traveled through Egypt to study architectural ornaments and produced precise documentation drawings. His elaborate research was compiled in books such as Les Arts Arabes or Les Eléments de l’Art Arabe,two works that set the standards for what was considered « Arab Art » in Europe. Tabet cuts-out and recomposes individual pages from these publications, in an attempt to find different possible geometries hidden within the document.

Arabesques are usually used in repeating patterns and can be infinitely multiplied in order to cover a surface. In Assemblage -as in several works in the show- Tabet follows the repetition logic by stacking twenty original redwood corbels salvaged from Julia Morgan’s Saint John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Morgan (1872–1957), who was a student of Bourgoin, was the first female architecture student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and went on to become a prolific representative of the Arts and Crafts movement taking the idea of the arabesque from Europe to North America.

Through these conceptual exercises, Tabet creates structures in which ornamental motifs reclaim some of their original purpose isolated from subjective interpretations, like in Rosettes, an installation made out of plaster and plastic ceiling medallion that are assembled on the floor into a reclining light fixture.

Completing the presentation on the ground floor are score sheets on music stands of Deux Arabesque by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), a composition that interpreted the arabesque motif into musical form. On each of the sheets, the artist has drawn one letter from the word Orientalism. The ink covers notes, creating voids and deconstructing the melody. The distorted composition is played back by a digital processor, revealing the blind spots of the initial European interpretation of the form.

The ground floor installation is mirrored in Moulages, where fragments of clay mouldings commonly used in interior decoration are composed into a mural that read like the score of the sound piece playing in the same room.

Rayyane Tabet’s exhibition Arabeske combines complex thoughts, historical facts, coincidental encounters and emotions. While reframing basic shapes and lines from their individual context, he maps out the migration of ideas across time and space that culminates in questions of heritage, appropriation, subjectivity and perception.

Courtesy of Sfeir-Semler Gallery

Image caption: Rayyane Tabet, Arabeske exhibition view

Grey Noise gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Galle based Sri Lankan artist Muhanned Cader at Grey Noise, Dubai.

I.

Darkness. Why is it so chilling, yet so alluring. We fear it yet escape into it. As he has done before, Muhanned Cader turns to the subject of darkness, in a new body of 12 paintings called Nightscapes 2019-2021. Rather than look at the night in these works, Muhanned looks into it. It’s a subtle difference that reminds me of a conversation I had years back with American artist James Turrell who said ‘night does not fall, it rises’. Between sunset to sunrise every 24 hours, when the sun moves below the horizon, a period of ambient darkness ascends. Night of course is defined in relation to the rotational position of the day. In the absence of daylight, nothing can be seen, at least not for humans. Our sense of sight is blighted. What we can’t see we fear. For Muhanned however, the obstruction of our sensory system to see in the night should not prevent us from looking into its velvety darkness. Painted from the vantage point of his 8th storey apartment, his new series of paintings look into the nighttime surroundings of his neighbourhood, Nugaduwa.

II.

Nugaduwa is situated on the outskirts of the southern city of Galle in Sri Lanka. It does not share the bright lights of the big city at night. Instead, it twinkles and shimmers as a result of the blazing street lamps that line the Southern Expressway. The Nugaduwa interchange which serves as the access point into the city of Galle, is also a stone’s throw from the artist’s apartment. In one of Muhanned’s twelve paintings, the highway appears as an abrupt arc of narrow, orange light. It darts across the lower part of the canvas before being extinguished by the dark. Other paintings in this series look out across vast vistas of night. Human habitation is suggested by clusters or strings of light; some areas appear more populated than others. From afar, the lights chart the proximity of buildings to one another amidst the rising topography of the landscape. A dense cluster indicates the city of Galle in the far distance, while smaller clusters locate dwellings in what seems like the middle of nowhere. When seen up close, however, these lights transform into nothing more than muddy crusts or dabs of raw paint. Dandelion, bumblebee, flaxen, oyster, cotton and parchment are just some of the colours that lie on the surface of the canvas. They join an otherwise dominant spectrum of black, blues and dawn grey swatches of paint. Looking into the night Muhanned unveils a kaleidoscope of hues lurking within an otherwise monochrome series of works.

III.

In the 1990s Muhanned Cader rented a studio on the edge of Bolgoda River, situated in a quiet suburb south of the capital Colombo. During this period he made a series of 40 paintings called ‘Nightscapes’(1999), which captured the views from his studio across the river after sunset. The paintings featured curved edges, a trait that has gone on to become a distinguishing characteristic of his drawings and paintings. Rather than paint the picturesque views of the river during the daytime, the artist opted to capture the view from his studio during nightfall. “I was not very into the daytime…there was something about those Koralawella nights that was perfect and mysterious, which made me want to paint it. And it worked perfectly with the politics of the time.”[1] Muhanned’s return to painting nightscapes comes not only with a change in location but a change in format. The curvilinear form of his initial series has been left behind and replaced with rectangular canvases. They are oriented in the format of traditional landscapes or turned vertically like stone tablets. Set within these rectangles however, the irregular edges of the painted surface continue. As in the previous series, they suggest that part of the night has been edited out. What is there to be seen has been concealed by the cover of night. We cannot see the full picture. We are not supposed t

IV.

The new series of paintings are shown alongside an accordion book, in which collaged photographic fragments have been arranged to form a unfolding landscape at night. The double-sided accordion book gives form to the night from the front and the back. It mimics the feeling of being surrounded by the darkness. Compared to the paintings, the photographs help us observe the light pollution of the city. They depict the misty indeterminacy of night into day as a ritual that invites the next revolution of a living planet. The images that make up the book are made by cutting out parts of the night. These cutouts correspond to the sections of night that have been removed from the edges of the paintings. In the book, Muhanned appears to present us with an archive of night’s remnants, filed for safekeeping. Titled, Let Sleeping Villages Sleep (2021), Muhanned suggests that we read past the contents of the book and instead, remain vigilant of what lurks beneath the surface, should the sleeping villages awaken. While the cover of night induces a state of slumber and quiet, it’s darkness also conceals all evils. Darkness. It is so chilling yet so alluring, for a reason. Such are the politics of our times.

Sharmini Pereira
Chief Curator
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka
2021

Courtesy of GREY NOISE, Dubai

Artwork caption: Muhanned Cader, Nugaduwa 2(detail), 2020, oil on canvas board, 12.7 x 17.8 cm, set of 5

Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Rossella Biscotti, Bady Dalloul, Cian Dayrit, Shadi Habib Allah and Christine Rebet

In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

—Suarez Miranda, Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658

The map has long been a contested site. Jorge Luis Borges’ 1946 story On Exactitude in Science, composed masterfully of a sole paragraph written as a literary forgery, sounds cautionary: despite its alleged precision, the map is doomed to finish as a tattered, haunted plane. It is fundamentally an abstraction. Trusting either cartographic imagery or the language of ‘representational’ mapping is illusory, as the relationship of the tool to its subject is one of flux, instability, and layered subjectivity. Any canny observer of images, dutifully informed by postmodern tendencies to distrust simulation and manipulation, clearly lost faith in representational veracity long ago. Yet the map sneaks past these filters, doggedly presenting itself as a terra firma kind of reality, sealing the deal on the promise of certainty and reliability that Borges so deftly critiqued.

Map ≠ Territory, subtly complicating linguist Alfred Korybski’s incisive phrase with a mathematical sign, unites the work of six artists who plumb the complex question of mapping today—a time of ongoing post-colonial fallout, elusive resources, invasive tech, and intensifying surveillance. Rather than literally mapping, these artists reflect on the various (and sometimes urgent) strands of inquiry the fraught map/territory relation continues to encompass.

The simple act of reading a map is problematised in Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck’s Ian Gulf (2018), which, like many of the artist’s works, is sharp witted yet deeply layered. By obliterating the first four letters of the words ‘Persian’ and ‘Arabian’ on side-by-side Gulf maps by means of a cardamom pod and pink peppercorns, the artist conjures, in one swift gesture, ancient trade routes, the march of empire, ongoing geographic name squabbles, and a host of political entanglements that smolder below the surface of the gently pastel-colored documents—from 1950s Soviet military ambitions to Western oil extraction strategies. The plaything of shifting geopolitical scheming, the territory, like the signs used to demarcate it, can never be truly ‘read.’

Trusted documentary methods, in the hands of Rossella Biscotti, convey alternative truths. Conflating two documentary ‘models’—the blueprint and the oceanographic map—Biscotti’s The Journey (2016) confounds scientific exactitude by alluding to the politics of invisibility at work in any attempt to render the visible. The artist dropped a 20-ton marble block awarded to her by the iconic Michelangelo quarry in Carrara, Italy into the charged waters between Italy, Malta, Libya, and Tunisia. Pinpointing the marble chunk’s location, Biscotti fathoms military relics, commercial and migrant routes from the seabed up, interrogating how exploration and exploitation overlap.

Invisibility, the environment, and the scramble for resources coalesce in Balteo-Yazbeck’s Constellation A, from the Fossil Carbon Cycle series (2006-2020). Five wooden lumps splayed across the wall are made from ancient roots seeped in the fossil-fuel-generated carbon they have imbibed throughout their long lifecycle. The wall-bound configuration reproduces exploration maps indicating underground fuel deposits, the tar-painted roots’ convex curves mimicking the representational system of topographic maps.

Cian Dayrit engages in a practice of counter-mapping: he subverts the language of the map while signposting potentially emancipatory means of reinterpreting space. His choice of medium—embroidery and feathers on textile—destabilizes the cartographic canon, implying narratives that easily ravel and unravel. Cartographic might is undermined by flourishes of indigenous symbols, while the titles’ resolute questioning (Which Border Do You Subscribe To or Both Poles Serve You?) claim some agency over the hegemonic powers whose slicing up of the world have led to the dispossession and displacement at the heart of Dayrit’s concerns.

Consequences of imperial power (re)surface in Bady Dalloul’s floor-mounted video Discussion Between Gentlemen (2016). Referencing the territorial scoring of the Levant by the French and British, Dalloul’s comic/ironic work amplifies the precarious nature of map-making, foregrounding the palimpsest-like layers of erasure and re-writing. Echoing Borges, the work concludes that the map is futile, incapable of seizing the shifting will of its masters, ultimately becoming a relic. Resembling an operation room information panel (or a crime investigation suspect board), On the Happy Occasion (2015) takes a 1920s vintage map as a springboard to plot seemingly ordinary moments in the nascent history of a handful of imaginary countries that mushroom into markedly significant events. In much the same way Discussion Between Gentlemen exhausts the re-writing of history to the point of futility, On the Happy Occasion reframes the endeavor under the sign of randomness.

The surveillance state is power at its most insidious, its mapping technologies largely invisible, its panoptic might forever creating docile bodies. In his video Did You See Me This Time With Your Own Eyes? (2018) Shadi Habib Allah springboards off an experiment with a DIY 2G phone network—devices favored by nomadic Bedouins in the Sinai infamous for smuggling to escape Egyptian government tracking—to interrogate mapping that atomizes the conventions of the cartographic. Intercepted sound, encrypted messages, pervasive networks, decoding devices: the map enmeshes and strangles out its ‘subjects.’

Compelled by questions of illusion and deception, Christine Rebet freely maps a monk’s metamorphic journey from his mountain top home to the sea in the hand-drawn animated film Breathe In Breathe Out (2019) and accompanying ink-on-paper drawings. The path meanders through a succession of physical metamorphoses, but also marks a journey of the mind, peppered by glimpses of elusive corners of a fragile living world. Everything, the works suggest, is transitive.

Map ≠ Territory revels in a sense of unmappability, in this amplified collapse of trust in the map, so deeply wound up in structure of domination and control. Nothing is ever as it seems, these artists attest. And while the map may be futile as a representation of perpetually shifting territories, the deeper concern is that reality itself is unknowable. In the end, each map leads to other maps in a recursive regression. Are we fated only to ever have untrustworthy representations?

Text by Kevin Jones

Courtesy of Green Art Gallery

Image caption: Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Ian Gulf (map diptych), 2018. From the series All the Lands from Sunrise to Sunset Cardamom and rose pepper glued on vintage maps (offset prints 1951) custom mounted on conservation mat board, individually framed. Framed: 44.2 x 36 cm (each). Edition 1 of 3 + AP

Tabari Artspace is delighted to announce The Cherry On Top, the solo exhibition of Jordanian painter, Khaldoun Hijazin to be exhibited at Tabari Artspace, Dubai, September 15 – October 31, 2021. The Cherry On Top comprises 10 oil on canvas and acrylic on canvas paintings as well as two large-scale objects produced in 2021.

Our societies have been marked by their quest for truth and transparency yet the body of work produced by Khaldoun Hijazin for The Cherry On Top exposes the complex network of control and manipulation that frames our existence. The artist exposes the current post-truth space where political and ideological discourses are largely accepted to be both staged and falsified. Through his explorations, Hijazin shatters and subverts thinly veiled illusions revealing the performative and inherited nature of our actions, our simultaneous awareness and acceptance of the theatre of leadership, and the fragility of grandeur.

Through dark humour and pastiche, Hijazin dissects and dissolves structures of power and dominance in realms from the political to the social. Hijazin understands his art to be an exploration that facilitates the flow of various ideas and concepts rather than a process of direct commentary or documentation. Influences from reading critical theory as well as Marxist and deconstructive discourse are evident in the artist’s practice, particularly in this series.

From the boardroom to the dining table Hijazin’s characters are lodged in social settings marked by haunting legacies of propaganda, capitalism and colonialism. The artist weaves together a complex constellation of signs and signifiers, lifted from various moments in time and social and cultural contexts. As such, his scenes, existing in the non-linear moment that he established, are difficult to place. Some fragments in his works Middle Feast, Cooky Jar, and The Cherry on Top – from which the exhibition takes its title – appear to have roots in early twentieth century Arab Bedouin communities while others such as Familiar Faces, Shattered Illusions and Mind the Gap spawn from mid-century Western lobbies alluding to colonial and hegemonic legacies. Hijazin is preoccupied with the notion of legacies – events of the past that continue to reoccur and inform the present. His compositions take on complex and multilayered meaning, the imposition of markers such as the broken chandelier in Shattered Illusions, denotes the collapse of the illusion of ‘true’ progress as claimed by the canon of neoliberalism, while the insertion of a black hole in Mind the Gap, materialises current debate surrounding political transparency and the deliberate disappearance of information.

Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and Guy Debord’s notion of the ‘society of the spectacle’ – where appearances supercede substance – are pronounced in the actions of Hijazin’s characters, particularly in their hand gestures.

The imposition of colour in order to obscure and transform the faces of his characters – often authoritative figures – also recurs throughout several works including Sincerest Masquerade, Familiar Faces, and Faithfully Yours. Hijazin contends that figures of authority and influence shift their colours like chameleons and ‘put on their face’ before their public performance.

Throughout history, scale has been used to assert the importance and power of the nobility. In this context, Hijazin’s use of large-scale both references and subverts this tradition. Despite the magnitude of the artist’s 3.5 meter long Shattered Illusions, the frame is cropped so that only the polished shoes of the elite are revealed. This close framing keeps the viewer guessing who and what might have been obscured; alluding to secret, high-level discussions taking place in a male-dominated space.

The two large-scale objects that complete this body of work – Fall From Grace, and Tower of Desire, – take the throne and the cake as superficial and inflated signifiers of success and celebration. Hijazin, investing these icons with cynicism, has left them tilted and imperfect, ready to topple down onto the gallery floor.

Courtesy of Tabari Artspace

Image caption: Khaldoun Hijazin, Fashionably Late

Vantage Point Sharjah 9 (VPS9) is the ninth iteration of Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual initiative dedicated to the medium of photography. The exhibition is on view from 18 September through 18 December at the Foundation’s off-site venue Al Hamriyah Studios.

For the first time, Vantage Point Sharjah introduces a cash prize of USD 1,500 for one winner from each of the following categories: Conceptual, Experimental, Photojournalism and Documentary and Staged Photography. This year, VPS9 also introduces a jury consisting of Ammar Al Attar (artist), Sham Enbashi (photographer and architect), M’hammed Kilito (photographer) and Alia Al Shamsi (author and artist), who selected the winners from each category. The selected winners will be announced on the exhibition’s opening day, September 18.

This year’s annual Open Call attracted over 500 applicants. From these applications 53 photographers from over 30 countries were selected for inclusion in the exhibition. Each photographer will be represented by a series of 1 to 6 images that were submitted in response to the Open Call. The wide range of work included demonstrates the unique, fascinating and infinite possibilities of photography as a medium. Through their lens, the photographers explore the world around them, drawing from personal experiences and narratives, as well as cultural, political or environmental conditions. Some reveal intimate portraits of family life and memories, others reflect on the often- troubled history and politics of their homeland. Together, the nearly 200 images on view present an evocative and inspiring insight into the life and concerns of individuals of all walks of life from around the world today.

Artists were selected for their work in the Open Call categories of Conceptual, Experimental, Photojournalism and Documentary, and Staged Photography.

Conceptual Photography:
Maha Alasaker, Kathy Anne Lim, Hayley Millar Baker, Aline Deschamps, Farheen Fatima, Gabriel Gauffre, Majid Hojati, Alaa Jaafar, Işık Kaya, Wendy Marijnissen, Sara Sallam, Hiro Tanaka and Han Shun Zhou.

Experimental Photography:
Sarah Al Ansary, Gabi Kaiser, Carolina Dutca and Valentin Sidorneko, Devashish Gaur, Sukanya Ghosh, Brian Kerrigan, Barbel Mollmann, Ziad Naitaddi, Yudha Kusama Putera, Tamara Saade, Mahmoud Talaat and Alexander Walmsley.

Photojournalism and Documentary Photography:
Reyad Abedin, Taha Ahmad, Nicola Chilton, Akash Joshi, Roger Moukarzel, Fajar Riyanto, Kristina Sergeeva, Javed Sultan and Jerzy Wierzbicki.

Staged Photography:
Khadija El Abyad, Dima Assad, Fatima Butt, Divya Cowasji, Soheila Esmaeili, Wiame Haddad, Babak Haghi, Khoula Hamad, Barry Iverson, Januario Jano, Jennifer Kisney, Sudip Maiti, Lakin Ogunbanwo, Martin T Raggio, Anja Ronacher, Oskar Schmidt, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Sandeep TK and Rob Voerman

VPS was first launched in the summer of 2013 with an open call for submissions from GCC-based photographers. Over the years the exhibition has focused on a variety of themes including ‘Self-Portraiture’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Architecture and Urban Landscape’ and has opened up submissions to photographers from around the world.

Courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Image caption: Majid Hojati, Phone kiosk, 2019. From “Earth Silence”, Digital print; 50 x 70 cm

One year after the August 4, 2020 explosion that devastated the port of Beirut, the Arab World Institute pays tribute to the vitality and resilience of the Lebanese art scene. With the exhibition Lumières du Liban. Art moderne et contemporain de 1950 à aujourd’hui (September 21-January 2, 2022), the IMA celebrates the prodigious creativity of modern and contemporary artists from Lebanon and its diasporas, from the day after its independence in 1943 to the present day, with works by Shafic Abboud, Etel Adnan, Saliba Douaihy, Paul Guiragossian, Hussein Madi, Assadour, Chaouki Choukini, Ayman Baalbaki, Zad Moultaka, Serwan Baran, Hala Matta, Hiba Kalache, Zena Assi and Tagreed Darghouth.

More than a hundred works by 55 artists are revealed for this occasion, they were selected from the collection of modern and contemporary Arab art of the IMA, the largest in Europe (with its collection of nearly 600 Lebanese works) since its merger with the major donation of Claude and France Lemand in 2018, constantly enriched donation since then. “With Lights of Lebanon, the Arab World Institute expresses its full solidarity with the Lebanese people, and its world of arts and culture,” said Jack Lang, president of the IMA. Claude Lemand adds: “This exhibition bears witness to the luminous face of another Lebanon, that of its artists and its creators. It shows how big this small country is, and how, despite its misfortunes, victims and crisis, it remains the human and cultural melting pot that it has always been ”.

Lumières du Liban recalls the unique place of the Lebanese visual arts scene since the country’s independence, and reflects the complexity and artistic, human, geographical, historical and cultural richness of Lebanon. Scarred by conflicts and crises ranging from the civil war (1975-1990) to the explosion of the port of Beirut in August 2020, this history, sometimes chaotic, should not obscure its role as a major cultural melting pot, always well alive today: A role played by this country since Antiquity, as evidenced by the exhibition Liban, l’autre rive presented at the IMA in 1998-1999. The exhibition retraces in filigree seven decades of art history punctuated by the effervescence after the independence of Lebanon in 1943 and after the Second World War, the tears of civil war and exile, the artistic bubbling of globalisation.

More info on the following link.
https://www.imarabe.org/en/expositions/lumieres-du-liban

Courtesy of Institut du monde arabe

Artwork caption: Abdul Rahman Katanani, Autoportrait et Ombre, 2020. Plaques de metal et de bois, 180 x 200 x 60 cm.

Carbon 12 is pleased to announce the upcoming solo exhibition of Anthony Akinbola, Thanks A Million.

Anthony Akinbola is a Nigerian-American artist whose work is fundamentally built upon the philosophy of the readymade and investigation into his relationships with these same objects. Akinbola’s series of textile paintings focuses on the culturally and historically charged Du-rag; a garment used in the maintenance of African hair, as a primary means to explore and navigate a dialogue that is concerned with the intricacies and complexities of semiotics within American culture. Upon parsing the readymade object, Akinbola examines the intimate narrative of our individual and collective cultural associations to these objects, amplifying their seminal and perpetual role in the fragile construction of who we are.

Akinbola continues to dissect the multi-faceted aspect of the Du-rag, as observed in similar works from his previous exhibitions. Outside of its familiar usage as a tool manufactured for the preservation and care of African hair, in displacing the readymade object, Akinbola also subverts dynamics of power by situating it within a space that redefines its agency. Through this process, he uncovers its underlying ties to topics that concern the commodification of the African-American identity, and its vulnerability to structures of capitalism.

Upon emphasiSing its transition from mass produced good to art material, Akinbola simultaneously transforms not only the object but the entire environment with his large-scale paintings. The fabrics exist in a spectrum of hues; flayed and draped, stretched and strung tight, intuitively weaved across a wooden panel. Their bold compositions permeate the space, immersing the viewer in their multi-layered fabrication, an allusion to the complex fashioning of identity. The Camouflage series taps into a ready-made tradition and delves into themes of hybridity, consumerism and race, Akinbola sees each new exhibition as an opportunity to reexamine and contextualiSe the work through a new lens.

Though not separated from their conceptual genesis, Thanks A Million focuses less on a didactic framework and more towards an interior one. Akinbola shifts emphasis towards the idea of thanks and the paintings act as affirmations of gratitude as the artist reflects on all that’s happened in the midst of such a turbulent year.

“I’d like to use the exhibition as an opportunity to pause and simply say thank you, to everyone and everything, there’s so much to be grateful for.”

At the core of Anthony Akinbola’s overarching body of work, the Du-rag amplifies a conversation concentrated on belonging and selfhood; topics Akinbola illuminates provide audiences with a greater critical awareness – the most crucial upshot from his works. Akinbola’s work charts a clear trajectory across past and present to redefine the genre of what is considered contemporary African Art and African-American art, and in continuing to adopt a multifaceted approach, the paintings undergo various transformations to withstand the ever-evolving discussion on identity.

Courtesy of Carbon 12 gallery.

Image caption: Anthony Akinbola, Camouflage #054 (Kermit), 2019. Acrylic and Du-rags on wooden panel, 121.92 x 121.92 cm

Ayyam Gallery is pleased to present Nota Bene, a solo exhibition featuring works by Abdul Karim Majdal Al-Beik.

‘The walls alone know our secrets,’ wrote Imad Mustafa, a poet and one of Al-Beik’s closest friends. This nota bene is just one of many composed by Al-Beik. “If walls are the canvases of madmen, then these madmen are my teachers,” he once wrote. Walls are people’s palimpsest and the daubed drops of paint, their ink. Through the plaster and paint, Al-Beik tells us society’s stories.

Al-Beik’s creativity reflects wisdom and sensibility beyond his years. The artist notices how each wall possesses a different character that, over time, changes shape, texture, and color thanks to the sun and the rain. Al-Beik and his work register time, climate, and environment, life’s inevitables. Al-Beik infuses each canvas with the essence of his surroundings, revealing in the individuality each piece offers. Careful to maintain authenticity in his expression, basic wall-building materials are Al-Beik’s tools. To reconstruct the passage of time, he applies several layers to each canvas.

Projecting himself into the future and stepping away from a cataloging approach. In this series, Abdul Karim wonders about the unfolding of the walls. Will they capture and absorb the violence and atrocities their owners witnessed? What layers will be added to portray and recreate the pain? Al-Beik shakes the need for authenticity to reality, now using these walls as a medium of expression.

Diving into his imagination and taking from the DADA movement, Al-Beik introduces objects in his compositions. Guns and knives are scattered across the canvases, surrounded by gestural strokes capturing the intensity of the depicted period. Survival and death are translated through the scarecrows and crosses. Adjacent to these symbols are stitching marks, seemingly keeping everything together, acting as signs of hope. The walls and canvases become symbolic abstractions of reality. Throughout the process, Al-Beik questions these objects and their presence, has war taken over our lives? Can it be that arms are now replacing adolescent love letters and graffiti?

Courtesy of Ayyam Gallery

Artwork caption: Abdul Karim Majdal Al-Beik, Scarecrows, 2012, Mixed Media on Canvas, 180 x 180 cm.

Zawyeh Gallery announces the opening of a new exhibition titled “Metaphor” at Alserkal Avenue by young Palestinian artist Saher Nassar. The exhibition consists of four series of artworks that focus on the theme of breaking metaphors and resisting rules, expectations or norms and questioning representations of establishment and authority. Nassar works with a range of materials and styles and uses a mixture of abstract paintings, collage, drawings and photographs in addition to ready made objects.

In his first exhibition, Nassar ridicules and exposes what lies beyond the surface and encourages accepting other opinions, beliefs, behaviors, different from one’s own and the rejection of domination of power and authority. In one series, he places five packs of cigarettes in the middle of five different archival images of war that took place in five different countries around the world. The message on the five packs reads: Smoking Kills in five different languages connected to the five different geographies where the photos were taken. The series stresses on two layers of dangerous threats to humanity: war and smoking.

Nevertheless, the third layer that he is trying to convey can be read between the lines; it’s the lethal combination between capitalism and politics where the politics of war paves the way for western multi national conglomerates to dominate the economies of poorer countries selling products that also kill. Nassar says that his works intend to shake the status quo and highlight the exertion of power and authority imposed upon the individuals and society at large and they meant to discuss control and domination and attempts to resist them.

“Metaphor” is organized as part of a series of exhibitions at Alserkal Avenue with the intention to encourage young Palestinian artists to produce and participate, and provide them a platform to exhibit their works in front of the wider international audience, as part of the gallery’s attempts to empower and support young emerging artists.

Courtesy of Zawyeh Gallery

Artwork caption: Saher Nassar, Untitled 1, 2021. Installation, Acylic boards, 90 x 118 cm

The Athens Biennale announces its seventh edition, titled ECLIPSE, co-curated by Omsk Social Club and Larry Ossei-Mensah under the artistic direction of Poka-Yio. ECLIPSE is planned to take place in Spring 2021 in various locations in Athens. The exhibition will feature artists based in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, many of whom will be exhibiting in Greece for the first time.

The exhibition title highlights the obscured perspective of reality caused by the constant state of flux we are experiencing in our society now. ECLIPSE engages the social, political and spiritual changes of today’s global construct and in Athens itself, as a rising metropolis located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa both physically and historically. An eclipse is a phenomenon of filtering and shrouding as well as a cosmic event. The experience of the eclipse functions as a catalyst for reprocessing an unresolved past that can inform an unspoken present and ultimately shape our future. Thus, Athens serves as the appropriate vantage point for contemplating the nuances of time and space. Furthermore, examining the question; is the west in decline or in a moment of significant transformation?

ECLIPSE seeks to assess the implications of identity, history, and cultural complexity. The 7th Athens Biennale offers an arena to interrogate many of the ideas, queries, concerns, and desires that are frequently not platformed within a Biennial format. In an effort to activate a dynamic cross-cultural discourse, AB7 will highlight the works of artists from the African Diaspora in addition to other artistic voices that have historically been pushed to the periphery. This engagement will be articulated through the use of a “Black Lens” as one of the frameworks. This approach seeks to engage the varying perspectives and artistic practices percolating within the African diaspora. This dialogue will be situated alongside a complimentary framework of artistic interventions that use dynamic manifestations to compose unique practical narratives. Their aim is to strategically address the viewers imagination of potential parallel worlds and futures. Composing a set of spaces that platform ideas such as radical care, interspecies friendship and sonic viewing strategies, ECLIPSE presents a translocal chapter of contemporary thought on how to co-exist within a world differently.

Defying the prevalent politics of historical narratives, ECLIPSE proposes to challenge oppressive mechanisms and outdated idealism. By deploying various immersive techniques such as real game play, radical gossip, persuasive realities, “emotional hypnosis”, bodying, synthesis, and visualization, ECLIPSE activates narrative fabrication and orchestrates an experiential shift in art viewing opening an alternative future for contemplation.

The Palestinian Museum has the pleasure of inviting you to the opening of the new exhibition A People by the Sea: Narratives of the Palestinian Coast.

A People by the Sea: Narratives of the Palestinian Coast sheds light on the history of the Palestinian coast. It considers possible futures by reviewing and reflecting on past experiences. Starting from the mid-eighteenth century and ending in 1948, the exhibition allows for a re-examination of the Nakba through a presentation of two hundred years of historical landmarks.

Guest curator: Inass Yassin
Assistant curator: Ahmad Alaqra

The exhibition includes focused narratives: The first one highlights the rise of Akka (Acre) in the mid-18th century, highlighting its political, economic, urban, and architectural history before modern states’ formation in the region. A second narrative focuses on the rise of Yafa (Jaffa) in the 19th century, with the gradual concentration of capital and trade in Palestine’s coastal cities. This was accompanied by a growing European influence in the mid-19th century, which led to the 20th century Nakba and the fall of the country.

The history of the Palestinian people is one of a complex society with historical continuity on their land. The people of Palestine succeeded in forging diverse manifestations of their deep-rooted existence in the land, through a continuous history and in a semi-independent manner, outside the bounds of official state constructs and encroachments of invading powers that successively ruled the region for centuries – the last of which being the current colonial rule. The presence of an enduring and vibrant Palestine is evident through its urban, architectural, economic, social, and political ensembles and structuring, prior to modern nation-states’ formations and their ensuing demarcation of political borders. That presence is continuously established and reinforced through Palestinians’ steadfastness and will for self-determination, and their close bond with their land and sea.

Inass Yassin is a studio artist and curator. Her practice investigates urban and social transformations in Palestine since the late 1980s. She was the director of the Birzeit University Museum between 2010-2017. As a Fulbright grantee she obtained her MFA from Maine College of Art, in 2019. She also has a Master of Arts earned in 2009 from the University of Southampton, UK.

Historical Advisors: Professor Adel Manna, Professor Mahmoud Yazbek.

Artists: Amir Nizar Zuabi, Bashar Khalaf, Dima Srouji, Essa Grayeb, Manar Zuabi, Shareef Sarhan, Abed Abdi, Nasser Soumi, Nicola Tadros.

Collections and Contributions: George M. Al-Ama, Amjad Ghannam, Maha Abushusheh, The Palestinian Museum, NINO collection, Institute for Palestine Studies collection, American University-Beirut, Jehad Kmail, Ahed Izhiman, Ashraf Diwani, Noor Abu Hashhash, Raed Duzdar.

Donors: A. M. Qattan Foundation through the “Visual Arts: A Flourishing Field” (VAFF) Project, funded by Sweden, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Bank of Palestine.

Courtesy of The Palestinian Museum

Image caption: The coast of Palestine, circa 1920–1923. Image: © and courtesy Frank Scholten, Nino Collection, The Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden

Cardinal Points – French-Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar’s first solo at the gallery – presents a curation of contemporary artworks and a large-scale installation that are quintessential to his practice, celebrating Moutashar as a meeting point between Islamic tradition and experimental optical art.

Born in Iraq in 1943, Moutashar spent most of his artistic life in his chosen home France, where he moved to in 1967. Very early on, his practice embraced the hard-edge abstraction and Op-Art movements of the 1960’s, becoming part of the roster of the legendary Denis René Gallery in Paris, renowned for her geometric and kinetic art programme, where he exhibited alongside artists such as Francois Morellet, Julio Le Park, Viktor Vaserelly and Carlos Cruz Diez. At the same time, he never lost sight of his innate Iraqi, Babylonian and Islamic art influences and was guided by their mathematical and geometric investigations as well as their early methods and systems. In recognition of the “contemporary relevance of his work” and ability to demonstrate a “profound understanding of the cultures from which he comes” he was a joint winner of the Jameel Prize 5 (2018).

In Cardinal Points, the exhibition’s centrepiece is Trois angles à 135° (Three Angles at 135°) nicknamed by the artist as “The Spider”. This large-scale work is made up [hundreds] of wooden blocks accented with blue and produced by the intersection of three broken lines that spread outwards in six directions. The use of blocks and glimpses of blue reference the architectural traditions of Mesopotamia where mud bricks were highlighted in an ultramarine blue glaze. Moutashar does not think of his floor pieces as sculptures or installations but rather as Constructions – constructed as they are of elements within a certain arrangement, in this case a mutable space of broken lines that appear to rotate.

This sense of rotation and dynamism is also apparent in Moutashar’s wall-based works. Using only black, white and ultramarine blue, these geometric sculpture-paintings give the illusion of an object in flux – either spinning or moving deliberately towards a target. In his black steel works for example, each black rectangle is folded against itself and arranged as if to trace the points of a spiralling object.

In his other wall-based works he combines rectangles and squares made from steel, wood and elastic, endlessly configuring and reconfiguring them into energetic geometric compositions according to a set of rules of the artist’s devising. In all of these works the artist is equally concerned with the voids as with the solid parts, with light and obscurity, leaving the viewer to create their own imagined outlines.

Moutashar’s working method and visual language reveal themselves in the titles of the works. Recurring words such plis (folds), mouvement (movement), angles and carrés (squares) appear in many of his titles. Though rarely explicitly calligraphic, his works also share certain traits with Arabic calligraphy. Hence, Moutashar’s squares recall the nuqta (dots) of the qalam (reed pen); his black rectangles and lines fold in on themselves, attenuating like calligraphic flourishes; his rule-based approach recalling those laid down by Ibn Muqla, Arab Vizer and calligraphers in the 10th century.

Alongside these are a group of works entitled Mouvements (2016) in which Moutashar remakes his lost geometric paintings from the late 1960s. Rather than using paper or canvas, his choice of laser-cut steel, painted either blue or black, allows for very different optical effects.

Mehdi Moutashar’s work inhabits a world of angles, folds and in-between spaces; an elusive universe that occupies the space between Iraq, his home of origin, and France, his home of choice.

Image caption: Mehdi Moutashar, Three Folds at 60° and Two Squares, 2021. Painted wood, painted steel, elastic wire, 141 x 191 cm.

Courtesy of Lawrie Shabibi

Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde is pleased to present our first solo show of work by Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan entitled The Eternal Return of the Same. These works not only deepen AlDowayan’s nuanced interrogation of women’s shifting status within a metamorphosing Saudi society, but also intensify her exploration of new material. A nod to Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence, the title The Eternal Return of the Same captures gestures of repetition and iteration undergirding the works. While the exhibition may provide a moment of reflection on the need for reckoning, it also bears AlDowayan’s hallmark critical assessment of a world rife with inequity and uncertainty

AlDowayan slyly employs materials that almost contradict the object depicted. The Emerging (2021) is a series of thirty jesmonite casts. Unevenly textured, pocked with finger marks and smoothed over by hand, the cluster of distinct floor-bound appendages of body parts question how women are renegotiating their bodies and the spaces they inhabit. As they are increasingly joining the Saudi public sphere, away from the ‘counterpublic,’ exclusively female enclaves of empowerment, women are forced to (re)claim a stake in the patriarchal arena. More than an innocent celebration of ‘our time has come’, the repeated single, imperfectly cast bodily eruptions in The Emerging suggest that the movement from one space to another, while forceful, is still tenuous: women in the Kingdom must reprocess not only positions, but their bodies and voices within them.

The leg recurs in The Recline (2020), a large tapestry in which the limb morphs and mirrors itself, conjuring a reclining female form, poised above a cascade of loose, unravelled (or not yet woven) linen threads. The work exemplifies not only the notion of repetition—the leg emerging over and over in diverse media—but also the artist’s challenge to the traditional craft of weaving. The Recline, like the other works in the exhibition, exudes at once a political vitality and a sensual poetics of materiality.

Just as The Emerging frames an exuberant individuality against a crushing societal sameness, two soft sculptures, Ephemeral Witness (2019) and O Sister (2021) confront the blanket ‘instruction manual’ mentality of religious injunctions with an individualist feminine energy. Modelled on the desert rose—hardened, petal-like crystalline formations occurring in deserts where sand meets salt—the forms evoke some oversized bodily cavity, all multi-layered biological complexity and beckoning openness. Resistant yet refined, the natural silk of the sculptures is printed with instructions penned by religious men determining women’s ‘use’ of their bodies. The inky texts blur on the ridged fabric surface, their legibility confounded by strokes of charcoal. While Ephemeral Witness hangs, inviting the viewer to scrutinize its cleft opening and poised verticality, O Sister (2021) spreads its soft, collapsible, darkly burnished flaps in an ironic embrace. Part of a generation deeply impacted by conservative laws against women in Saudi Arabia, AlDowayan teases out a new tension in these works, raising questions about physical emancipation at the very moment the Kingdom ostensibly moves towards greater social freedoms.

Similarly, Just Paper (2019) interrogates the textual manifestations of patriarchal power structures by taking aim at archival memory. Upending the longevity of the printed, archival form of written texts, Al Dowayan renders religious and linguistic texts in delicate rolls of fragile porcelain. Easily crushed, the porcelain rolls bear not only prescriptive religious texts like those on the two soft sculptures, but also definitions taken from a millennium-old book on the jurisprudence of the Arabic language. Here we find the extended family of words used to transcribe varying intensities of sadness, entrapment, fever, anger, tightness, insanity… Replicated and cast across a table, the vulnerable porcelain scrolls are emblematic of AlDowayan’s artistic output: strikingly beautiful works in appearance, harbouring challenging elements within.

Like many artists, AlDowayan has viewed recent life through the prism of the singular, inescapable space of her London home. Her awareness of the day-in-day-out repetition of actions and gestures intensified. The Eternal Return of the Same conflates this recurrence of the mundane, the growing opacity of time through ritualisation, an uneasy sense of settled uncertainty, with the process of reckoning Saudi women of her generation must undertake, given the seismic changes in the Kingdom. Yet repetition, the exhibition implies, in its gentle shifting and distortion of the familiar, can become a site of newness.

Courtesy of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde

Image caption: Manal AlDowayan, O Sister, 2021. Tussar silk, acrylic and natural hemp, 160 x 195 x 55 cm

H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, inaugurated Louvre Abu Dhabi’s exhibition, Dragon and Phoenix – Centuries of Exchange between Chinese and Islamic Worlds. The exhibition opens to the public on 6 October 2021 and will run until 12 February 2022. With more than 200 artworks on display, visitors can explore the cultural and artistic exchange between the Chinese and Islamic worlds from the 8th to the 18th century. A rich cultural programme will accompany the exhibition, offering an array of events, from dragon boating to kayak cinema and family film screenings.

Organised by Louvre Abu Dhabi in partnership with Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet and France Muséums, the exhibition is curated by Sophie Makariou, President of Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, with the support of Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director, and Guilhem André, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Chief Curator of Asian and Medieval Art.

The artworks in Dragon and Phoenix represent long-lasting dialogue between China (the dragon) and the Islamic world (the phoenix), chosen from the collections of Louvre Abu Dhabi and Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, alongside those of 12 international museums and institutions. The exhibition delves into the cultural exchange and prolific artistic production between the two worlds resulting in coveted luxury materials and artworks across a span of more than 800 years.

Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: “Through the poetic title of Dragon and Phoenix, the many interpretations of these two fantastical creatures evoke the significant artistic exchange between two great cultures. The flourishing artistic production, the exquisite objects and materials that came from these two civilisations, brought together across land and sea, is extraordinary. We cannot wait for visitors to experience this fascinating exhibition. My sincere thanks to Sophie Makariou, the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, the Musée du Louvre, the Shanghai Museum and all our lending partners, without whom Dragon and Phoenix would not have been possible.”

Visitors will be taken on a journey organised in five chapters, through both land and sea trade routes, to explore the connections, artistic influences and remarkable untold stories, beginning from the establishment of the first Arab merchant colonies in Canton in the 8th century until the threshold of the 18th century. ‘The Islamic world’ references the regions that include countries, cultures and ethnic groups, who shared their affiliation to Islam during this period, such as the Mashriq region, Eastern Africa, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and South-East Asia.

Sophie Makariou, President of Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, said: “From the 8th century up to the beginning of the 18th century, the Islamic world never ceased to regard China as an ideal of technical achievement and beauty, while the Islamic world supplied China with precious luxury objects in metal and glass. This unique exhibition deals with this long history of cultural interactions, of material and immaterial exchanges, and with peaceful relations between those two high-world cultures.”

Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director at Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: “This exhibition brings mythical creatures, dragon and phoenix among many others, on precious objects to life. Textiles, jades, lacquer, silks and ceramics circulated from the Middle Kingdom to the shores of the Mediterranean and inspired production of both cultures. The circulation of persons and manufactured goods through diplomatic, commercial and cultural exchanges is at the core of this exhibition. The five dramatic chapters reveal a story of mutual influences where external inputs and processes of transfer did not undermine the longevity of aesthetic expression, but on the contrary stimulated its creativity.”

Lending institutions for the Dragon and Phoenix exhibition include: Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, Musée du Louvre, Shanghai Museum, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Archives nationales, Cité de la céramique – Sèvres et Limoges, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée de Cluny – musée national du Moyen Âge, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée Jacquemart-André – Institut de France, Musée national de la Renaissance – Château d’Ecouen, Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle and Musée des Tissus de Lyon.

Cultural and Education Programming

The programming for Dragon and Phoenix is a sensory journey across the narrative of the exhibition and presents a variety of events and activities. The cultural programme will include a hand-picked selection of weekend family film screenings and kayak cinema shows, with two sessions in November and one in December. Young visitors can watch The Monkey King and an episode of The Adventures of Sinbad on November 19 and return to the museum on November 26 to watch a second installment of The Adventures of Sinbad alongside the screening of Bilal: A New Breed of Hero. The saga of Sinbad continues with a final screening on December 10 and, on the same day, children will have the opportunity to explore the world of Raya and the Last Dragon. Animated Tales of the World (shorts) will be available to watch on all the three days of the film screenings. The Adventures of Sinbad screenings will be shown as part of the kayak cinema, allowing visitors to watch the episodes while paddling around the museum.

In addition to the ongoing yoga and kayaking activities at the museum, there will also be a new seasonal offering, inspired by traditional Chinese culture – Dragon Boats from November 18 to December 31. Early next year, visitors will also be able to witness a performance piece by local artist Ahmed AlAreef whose installation responds to figures of the zodiac, as seen by both cultures.

Alongside the exhibition, a series of educational activities and programmes are available at the museum starting October. These include daily Express Tours for adults that will assist visitors to follow a journey and delve deep into the long history of cultural interactions, material and idea exchanges between the two civilisations. Students will be able to discover how cultural exchanges across communities in Asia influenced artistic production and ways of living via the Take Me to Asia interactive encounters with Museum Educators. Families can participate in the new #MakeandPlay activities inspired by the exhibition on site and those at home can follow our instructional videos online to create their very own Iznik dish. A series of Masterclasses will be offered starting from November featuring artists invited to respond to artworks within the exhibition and, later, share their skills with participants aged 18 and older in creative activities. Finally, #ARTLAB is back this winter led by UAE-based artists to encourage museum-goers to create their own art inspired by dragons and phoenixes.

Courtesy of Louvre Abu Dhabi
Image caption: Dragon & Phoenix. © Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi

Saleh Barakat Gallery invites you to the opening exhibition of a collective show around Beirut today “The Show Must Go On”.

This group exhibition is entirely devoted to the display of monumental artworks. In times such as these, when our lives have been overtaken by daily concerns, The Show Must Go On is a testament to the need for brief moments of respite, as well as big dreams for the future, which perhaps only art can offer.

This exhibition is held in honor of the memory of our beloved art handler and logistician, Firas Dahwish, who was violently killed by the August 4 blast.

Courtesy of Saleh Barakat Gallery

Oussama Baalbaki, Untitled, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 400 cm. Courtesy of Saleh Barakat Gallery.

Fann A Porter Amman is pleased to present Watermelon Peace, the latest exhibition by celebrated painter Majd Kurdieh from 11 October – 10 November 2021 at Manara Arts & Culture in Amman, Jordan.

In this latest collection represented under Watermelon Peace, Majd Kurdieh strongly acknowledges humanity’s increasing turmoil and restlessness and counteracts with portrayals of unwavering love, belief and discovery of inner peace.

Unsurprisingly, the paintings burst with light and colour, offering up an aesthetic as passionate as the topic itself. Since the introduction of The Scary Butterfly Gang and its characters in 2014, and through all his various exhibitions, Kurdieh is masterful in his ability to express our realities through the strokes of his brush and the power of his words.

It is perhaps the visual innocence of the works represented in his collection, coupled with the power of prose and poetry, that deem his work so poignant. As noted by Kurdieh, his art and its characters are of this world, not merely a fantasy. If you care to look deeply enough, he offers a portal to a place of hope and togetherness should you wish to experience it.

Courtesy of Fann A Porter Amman

Image caption: Majd Kurdieh, I lean on you, using your light to write. All I do is hold the pen, 2021. Oil on canvas, 35 x 50 cm.

The 4th annual exhibition of Art D’Égypte is a historic one: Forever Is Now is the first international contemporary art exhibition at the Pyramids of Giza in 4500 years.

“The Pyramids have a long, illustrious history of extraordinary kind that has fascinated and inspired artists from all over the world,” said Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Founder of Art D’Égypte, “I’m thrilled to share what will be an unforgettable encounter with the union of art, history, and heritage.”

In a departure from its previous exhibitions, Art D’Égypte is inviting international and local artists to participate in Forever Is Now. This exhibition is the first exhibition of its kind in 4500 years. The exhibition represents a merging of ancient heritage and contemporary art at the oldest and last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which today survives as a UNESCO world heritage site.

The participating international artists are Russian artist Alexander Ponomarev; American artist Gisela Colón; Brazilian artist João Trevisan; French Artist JR; Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn; Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr; Egyptian born, Los Angeles- based artist Sherin Guirguis; British artists Shuster + Moseley; British artist Stephen Cox RA; and Saudi Arabian artist HRH Prince Sultan Bin Fahad.

This project is made possible thanks to the support of numerous partners including the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, Afrexim Bank, Hany Saad, Signify, MO4 Network, Eastern Company, Al Ismaeilia Group, Orange S.A., Sawiris Foundation, cultural partner the Abu Dhabi Festival, our transportation partner SWVL, ALEXBANK, Orascom Pyramids Entertainment (OPE), Oriental Weavers, Egyptair, Fairmont | ALL, TV5Monde, Savills, Wine Gianaclis Vineyards, Lipton, Travco Group, Ashmand, Beretta, the French Embassy in Egypt, the French Institute in Egypt The British Council, CC-plus, DHL, Abou Ghaly Motors, Meuble El Chark, Barta & Partners, The Art Newspaper, Daghash, Swiss Embassy in Egypt and Marmonil.

In parallel to the Exhibition, Art D’Égypte brings, for the first time in Egypt, AI-DA, the world’s first ultra-realistic AI robot. As a machine, with Artificial Intelligence capabilities, its artist persona is the artwork, along with its drawings, paintings, performance art, and sculptures. As conceptual art, Ai-Da encourages us to reconsider our self-perception through the lens of a humanoid.

Courtesy of Art D’Égypte

Image caption: Shuster+Moseley, (Plan Of The Path Of Light) In The House Of Hidden Places_©Pixcelle Photography

Earth, Soil, Rocks, Forests, Oceans… elements that surpass us with their immensity while encircling us, present and absent at the same time. Strong and fragile in the face of time and human expansion.

The Earth is threatened: a million species on the brink of extinction, destruction of marine and biome ecosystems, large scale deforestation, glaciers melting, ocean levels on the rise, wildfires, pollution, global warming… We have exhausted all of our resources.
Will we ever be able to go back and find balance with the earth?
Will she find it on her own?
A lot of questions, and definitely denial.

Nature’s beauty is evident in all her forms, seasons, colours, terrains and
phenomena.
Inspired by her visits to the mountains of Lebanon and abroad, Tamara Haddad forges her landscapes using dark oils, clay, tree bark, sand, wood, and straw to deliver apocalyptic yet fragile horizons where the sky meets the sea. Nature’s beauty and its destruction have thus become the main theme in Haddad’s artworks.

“Today, through this new series, I come back to the origin of the Earth, I question its material, the way it’s formed, its reliefs and its colours. I search for the beauty of rocky landscapes, the infinity of hues and textures.”

Courtesy of Galerie Tanit

Image caption: Tamara Hadad, Havoc for palm tree, 2021, Oil, Acrylic, Sand, Branches, Straw, Metal thread on canvas, 75 x 110 cm

The Exhibition, The Other Side of Silence, an International Co-Production Features Major New Commissions and Significant Works from the Past 15 Years of the Artist’s Career

The first mid-career survey of work by London-based Syrian-Armenian artist Hrair Sarkissian—one of the foremost conceptual photographers of our time—opens 30 October 2021 at Sharjah Art Foundation. Taking audiences on an expansive journey through the hallowed squares of Aleppo, Latakia and Damascus, across the skies above Palmyra and over the snow-covered post-industrial landscapes of modern day Armenia, The Other Side of Silence brings together two major new commissions by the artist and more than a dozen of his most significant bodies of work from the past 15 years.

Jointly organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm and the Bonnefanten, Maastricht, the exhibition is Sarkissian’s most extensive presentation to date. Having garnered initial training in his father’s photo lab, ‘Dream Colour’, in Damascus, Sarkissian went on to study visual art in the Netherlands where he continued using analogue photography as his primary medium. Captivated by the possibilities of the medium, Sarkissian seeks to make evident the invisible narratives that live behind the unresolved wounds of conflict.

The Other Side of Silence explores histories of disappearance, the architecture of violence and the potential of the medium of photography itself. Anchoring this exhibition are two major commissions: a photographic installation, Last Seen (2021), commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and Little Apple (working title) (2021/2022), commissioned by the Bonnefanten. The exhibition features an expansive presentation of many of the artist’s major works produced since 2006, including Unfinished and In Between (both 2006), Execution Squares (2008) and Final Flight (2017–2019).

Bonniers Konsthall is producing Sarkissian’s first major monograph, edited by Kholeif and Ringborg. It will be published by Bonniers Kontshall in collaboration with Lenz Press and designed by Hans Gremmen. The book features original scholarly contributions from major figures, including Marianne Hirsch (Professor, Columbia University); Hannah Feldman (Associate Professor, Northwestern University); Todd Reisz (writer and architect); and Vali Mahlouji (curator and psychoanalyst). A major essay by Kholeif contextualises the artist’s practice alongside an exploratory text by Ringborg. The foreword is written jointly by Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, Ringborg and Huijts. The monograph will be available at the exhibition opening in Sharjah in autumn 2021.

Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence is curated by Dr Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation; Dr Theodor Ringborg, Artistic Director, Bonniers Konsthall; and Stijn Huijts, Artistic Director, the Bonnefanten. The exhibition will be on view at Sharjah Art Foundation from 30 October 2021 to 30 January 2022 and Bonniers Konsthall from 26 April to 19 June 2022 before travelling to the Bonnefanten, where it will be on view from 17 November 2022 to 14 May 2023.

The opening reception of Hrair Sarkissian: The Other Side of Silence, taking place on 30 October 2021 at 4:00 pm. The opening will be accompanied by a conversation between Hrair Sarkissian and exhibition curator Dr Omar Kholeif, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation. The conversation will be followed by the signing of the artist’s first major monograph, published by Bonniers Konsthall and Lenz Press.

Courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Image caption: Hrair Sarkissian, In Between, 2006. Archival inkjet print; 120 x 175 cm

Qatar Museums—Qatar’s preeminent institution for art and culture—will present a mid-career retrospective of the acclaimed American artist and designer, Virgil Abloh, at the Garage Gallery at the Fire Station. The first museum exhibition of his work to be presented in the Middle East, Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech will be on view until 31 March 2022. With more than 55 works, the exhibition will offer an in-depth look at Abloh’s diverse pioneering media practice that ranges from visual arts to music, fashion, architecture, and design. Figures of Speech is organised by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, adapted for this presentation by Qatar Museums, and designed by and in collaboration with AMO. It is part of the Qatar-USA 2021 Year of Culture programme, an annual international cultural exchange designed to deepen understanding between nations and their people.

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said: “We believe that people in Qatar and throughout the Gulf will be enthralled by this introduction to the visionary, barrier-defying work of artist and designer Virgil Abloh. We are especially thrilled that Figures of Speech will open during our week-long event Qatar Creates: Fashion and Design, which will bring together creative professionals from around the world in celebration of our local and regional talent. With both the exhibition and the event, Qatar Museums is carrying forward its commitment to nurturing artistic talent, opening career opportunities, and offering inspiration to our audiences.”

Sheikha Reem Al Thani, Acting Deputy CEO of Exhibitions & Marketing, said “We are looking forward to presenting Figures of Speech, which will trace Virgil Abloh’s inventive practice and his many achievements. This special exhibition, combined with an extensive programme of workshops and talks we have planned to complement it, is sure to inspire and engage our audiences.”

Virgil Abloh (American, b. 1980) cultivated an interest in design and music at an early age, inspired by the urban culture of Chicago. While pursuing a master’s degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, he met American musician Kanye West and joined West’s creative team to work on album covers, concert designs, and merchandising. In 2013 Abloh founded his stand-alone fashion brand Off-White™ in Milan, Italy, and in 2018 he assumed the position of Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton.

Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech was curated by the MCA’s former James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator, Michael Darling with creative direction from Virgil Abloh, and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO (the research studio of the acclaimed architecture firm OMA). Curatorial assistance was also provided by Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol, Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow at the MCA Chicago. This exhibition has been on view at the MCA Chicago (10 June – 29 September 2019), the High Museum of Art Atlanta (12 Nov 2019 – 8 Mar 2020) and is currently on view at the ICA Boston (through 26 September 2021).

Michael Darling stated, “The exhibition has been laid out and designed to be in dialogue with the dynamic spaces of the Fire Station. As a result, there are new resonances between artworks and visitors will see a refreshed and renewed exhibition.”

Through Abloh’s own work and many collaborations, Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech shows the complex universe of fashion, music, art and design he moves in, demonstrating his ability to fluently speak the language of each discipline. Transcending the idea of a discipline, Abloh’s work, since the initial show in Chicago, has grown to a continuous broadcast of creativity. The exhibition is designed to provide an overview of the disciplines, pivotal moments, and statements of one of the most important contemporary cultural phenomenons. The Fire Station provides a unique setting for the exhibition. Two large gallery spaces give the visitors the immersive experience to feel the variety of works, while the more intimate gallery 3 puts emphasis on the theme of race in Black Gaze. The outdoor courtyard connects all galleries and places some of Abloh’s works where they belong, in the city. The Doha edition of Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech contains the Inflatable Bouncy Castle as well as the never before exhibited Customized Mercedes G-Wagon. The exhibition design also repurposes a number of elements from Qatar Museums’ previous exhibitions, such as the LED ticker signs and steel grates minimizing waste.

As a continuation of the works in the galleries, a concept store uses one of Fire Station’s warehouse spaces as the ideal setting to browse the exhibition merchandise. The concept store features a retrospective of best-selling Off-White™ products and exclusive new collections inspired by the exhibition. The products are available in-store, on-site only.

Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech is sponsored by ExxonMobil, Qatar Airways, Astro Automotive Services, Mazaya Real Estate Development Company and Qatar-USA Year of Culture.

The exhibition is presented as part of the Qatar-United States 2021 Year of Culture, sponsored by ExxonMobil, which was formalized in September 2020 with a cooperative agreement between the State of Qatar and the United States of America during the 2020 Qatar-United States Strategic Dialogue in Washington, D.C.

Courtesy of Qatar Museums

Image caption: Installation view, Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech”, MCA Chicago. June – September, 2019. Work shown: Virgil Abloh, A Series of Events, 2019. Ceramics. Private Collection. Photo: Nathan Keay, ©MCA Chicago. Courtesy of The Gymnastics Art Institute & Virgil Abloh Art Studio and Design Practice. ©️ 2021.

We are particularly happy to see you again this year, for the 24th edition of Paris Photo, at last! This year is special in more ways than one: a new venue, the Grand Palais Ephémère, an eco-responsible building at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, a new digital platform offering additional accessibility to works of art for collectors and enthusiasts, regardless of where they may be in the world, and a new impetus for Paris, the cradle of photography, thanks to our institutions and a burgeoning arts scene.

This year, Paris Photo brings together 147 galleries from 28 countries; 63% of which are foreign, reflecting a strong desire and a need to come together. In addition, 30 publishers from 9 countries will participate in the Artists Talks and the nomination of the Photobook Awards, with Aperture Foundation. Emerging artists are highlighted in Curiosa, our sector dedicated to emerging artists, under the aegis of Shoair Mavlian, curator, who has chosen 20 solo shows, while our 4 Carte Blanche Student laureates will exhibit their portfolios at the fair, and will be honored with a large-format exposition in one of Paris’ principal train station.

The Paris Photo public program is once again rich and diverse, with an exhibition of a selection works from JPMorgan Chase Art Collection including acquisitions from Paris Photo, a presentation by Almudena Romero, BMW’s artist-in-residence, and Olivier Cullman’s work for Pernod Ricard, on the theme of conviviality, which resonates with current events. Additional partners accompany us, contributing to the promotion of the medium, presenting images in a variety of formats, or joining in the exchange of ideas in our Platform conversations.

For the 4th year, Paris Photo renews its commitment to women in photography, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Kering / Women in Motion. Thanks to Nathalie Herschdorfer’s curatorship and to the itineraries created for the fair and the Online Viewing Room, additional exposure is given to women artists, highlighting their contribution to the history of the medium. The Centre nationale pour les arts plastiques supports us in this approach, allocating an acquisition budget for the benefit of the works by women artists presented by participating galleries. The Cnap will also present a selection of recent acquisitions at the fair with the exhibition, Corpus, featuring seven women artists exploring issues of body and identity. Finally, a year from its launch, EllesxParisPhoto.com, website nourished regularly throughout the year, continues to give a voice to women artists from all over the world. A necessary rebalancing…

We are proud of our commitment to support, together, the actors of the field of photography, and we look forward to meeting you again to enjoy, exchange, discover, and share!

Florence Bourgeois
Director, Paris Photo

EXHIBITOR LIST
For the 24th edition of Paris Photo, 177 exhibitors from 29 countries will be gathered at the Grand Palais Ephémère offering visitors the most extensive panorama of photographic works available on the market today.
SECTORS:
– MAIN Sector
– BOOK Sector
– CURIOSA Sector

149 GALLERIES – MAIN & CURIOSA SECTORS
127 Marrakech
ADN Barcelona
AFRONOVA Johannesburg
AKIO NAGASAWA Tokyo
ALARCON CRIADO Sevilla
ALEXANDRA DE VIVEIROS Paris
ALINE VIDAL Paris
ANCA POTERASU Bucharest
ANGALIA Meudon
ANITA BECKERS Frankfurt
ANNE-SARAH BENICHOU Paris
AUGUSTA EDWARDS London
BENDANA PINEL Paris
BENE TASCHEN Cologne
BIGAIGNON Paris
BILDHALLE Zürich*
BINOME Paris
BONNE ESPÉRANCE Paris
BRAVERMAN Tel Aviv
BRUCE SILVERSTEIN New York
CAMERA OBSCURA Paris
CARLOS CARVALHO Lisbon
CAROLINE O’BREEN Amsterdam
CASEMORE KIRKEBY San Francisco
CEYSSON & BÉNÉTIÈRE Paris
CHARLES ISAACS New York
CHARLOT Paris*
CHRISTIAN BERST ART BRUT Paris
CHRISTOPHE GAILLARD Paris
CHRISTOPHE GUYE Zürich
CLAIRE GASTAUD Clermont-Ferrand
CLÉMENTINE DE LA FÉRONNIÈRE Paris
DANIEL BLAU Munich
DIE MAUER Prato
DIX9 – HÉLÈNE LACHARMOISE Paris
DOCUMENT Chicago*
DOMINIQUE FIAT Paris
EDWYNN HOUK New York
ENGLAND & CO London
ESTHER WOERDEHOFF Paris
FIFTY ONE Antwerp
FLATLAND Amsterdam*
FLOWERS London
FRAENKEL San Francisco
FRANÇOISE BESSON Lyon
FRANÇOISE PAVIOT Paris
GAGOSIAN Paris
GALERIE DU JOUR AGNÈS B. Paris
GALERIE M Bochum*
GALERIE XII Paris*
GEORGES-PHILIPPE & NATHALIE VALLOIS Paris
GILLES PEYROULET & CIE Paris
GRÉGORY LEROY Paris
HACKELBURY London
HAMILTONS London
HANS P. KRAUS JR. New York
HOWARD GREENBERG New York
HUXLEY PARLOUR London
IBASHO Antwerp
IN CAMERA Paris
INTERVALLE Paris
ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE Dubai
JACKSON Atlanta
JAMES HYMAN London
JEAN-KENTA GAUTHIER Paris
JECZA Timisoara
JOHANNES FABER Vienna
JÖRG MAASS KUNSTHANDEL Berlin
JUANA DE AIZPURU Madrid
JUDITH ANDREAE Bonn
JULIAN SANDER Cologne
KAHMANN Amsterdam
KARSTEN GREVE Paris
KICKEN Berlin
KLEMM’S Berlin
KOMINEK Berlin
KORNFELD Berlin
L. PARKER STEPHENSON New York
LA FOREST DIVONNE Paris
LA GALERIE ROUGE Paris
LE RÉVERBÈRE Lyon
LES DOUCHES Paris
LES FILLES DU CALVAIRE Paris
LOFT ART Casablanca
LOOCK Berlin
LUME São Paulo
LUMIÈRE DES ROSES Montreuil
MAGNIN-A Paris
MAGNUM PHOTOS Paris
MARLBOROUGH New York
MARTIN ASBAEK Copenhagen
MAUBERT Paris
MÉLANIE RIO Nantes
MEM Tokyo
MICHAEL HOPPEN London
MIYAKO YOSHINAGA New York
NAILYA ALEXANDER New York
NATHALIE OBADIA Paris
NICHOLAS METIVIER Toronto
NIKOLAUS RUZICSKA Salzburg
NIL Paris*
NORDENHAKE Berlin
ODILE OUIZEMAN Paris
OVER THE INFLUENCE Hong Kong
PACE New York
PACI Brescia
PARIS-BEIJING Paris
PARROTTA Cologne
PATRICIA CONDE Mexico
PERSONS PROJECTS Berlin
PHOTON Ljubljana
PODBIELSKI Milan
POLKA Paris
RABOUAN MOUSSION Paris
ROBERT MANN New York
ROBERT MORAT Berlin
ROCIOSANTACRUZ Barcelona
ROLF ART Buenos Aires
RX Paris
SILK ROAD Tehran
SIT DOWN Paris
SOPHIE SCHEIDECKER Paris
SOUS LES ETOILES New York
STALEY-WISE New York
STEPHAN WITSCHI Zürich
STEVENSON Cape Town
STIEGLITZ19 Antwerp
SUZANNE TARASIEVE Paris
TANIT Beirut
THE THIRD GALLERY AYA Osaka
THK Cape Town
THOMAS ZANDER Cologne
TJ BOULTING London
TOBE Budapest
TOLUCA Paris
TRAPÉZ Budapest
UN-SPACED Paris
V1 Copenhagen
VALERIA BELLA Milan
VAN DER GRINTEN Cologne
VASLI SOUZA Oslo
VINTAGE Budapest
VU’ Paris
WEBBER London
XIPPAS Paris
YANCEY RICHARDSON New York
YOSSI MILO New York
YOUNIQUE Paris
YUMIKO CHIBA Tokyo

PUBLISHERS & ART BOOK DEALERS – BOOK SECTOR
5UHR30.COM Cologne
ACTES SUD Arles
AKIO NAGASAWA Tokyo
ANDRÉ FRÈRE ÉDITIONS Marseille
APERTURE New York
ARNAUD BIZALION Arles
ATELIER EXB / ÉDITIONS XAVIER BARRAL Paris
BOOKSHOP M Tokyo
CASE Tokyo
DELPIRE & CO Paris
DEWI LEWIS Stockport
FILIGRANES Paris
GOST London
HARTMANN Stuttgart
KAUNAS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY Kaunas*
KEHRER Heidelberg
KERBER Bielefeld
IBASHO Antwerp
KOMIYAMA Tokyo
L’ARTIERE Bentivoglio
LE BEC EN L’AIR Marseille
LOOSE JOINTS Marseille
MACK London
RADIUS Santa Fe
RM Barcelona
RVB BOOKS Paris
SILVANA EDITORIALE Milan
SPECTOR Leipzig
TEXTUEL Paris
THE(M) EDITIONS Paris

To accompany its 2021 edition at the Grand Palais Ephémère, Paris Photo is pleased to launch its very first Online Viewing Room. The new online platform developed by Artlogic – the leader in digital technology for the art world – offers Paris Photo galleries and publishers additional exposure to enrich their artistic proposals presented at the fair. For collectors and art lovers, it is an opportunity to easily acquire works, list their favorites, discover new talents, browse the curators’ choices and build new relationships with galleries and publishers, wherever they are in the world.
parisphoto.viewingrooms.com

Courtesy of Paris Photo

Image caption: ORLAN, Self-hybridations africaines. Masque Gabonnais-Congolais et visage de femme euro-stéphanoise, 2000, Black and white photograph, 156×125 cm (, © Aurélien Mole, courtesy Ceysson & Bénétière. Gallery CEYSSON & BÉNÉTIÈRE