NYUAD Spring Exhibition
The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery’s spring exhibition, the only constant, will open on February 22. Running until June 4, the show includes works by Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Patty Chang, Gil Heitor Cortesão, Sharon Lockhart, Taus Makhacheva, Haroon Mirza, Clifford Ross, Thomas Struth, and Vivek Vilasini.

(detail), 2022. Courtesy of
the artist, Lisson Gallery,
and max goelitz. The Dyson
Sphere was developed for
lille3000’s UTOPIA Festival,
supported by Maison
Ruinart. Photo: John
Varghese
Featuring 27 different works, the exhibition is curated by the Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery and University Chief Curator, Maya Allison. This is part of Allison’s ongoing study of landscape in contemporary art.

constant at The NYUAD Art
Gallery, 2023. Works by
artists Clifford Ross and
Thomas Struth. Photo: John
Varghese
For the only constant she explains: “The artists here confront contemporary landscape as a site of profound tension: we change the landscape, and it changes us.Even as we might long for an untouched paradise, humans build futuristic utopias. My concept for this exhibition grew out of Tarek Al-Ghoussein’s Al Sawaber series, through which runs a theme: utopia and paradise arrive, and then depart (change is the only constant). This tension is fundamental to questions we face as humans on this planet. Of course, those questions are part of the larger dialogue now underway in the UAE as we approach the COP28 convening this winter.”

(detail), 2022. Courtesy of
the artist, Lisson Gallery,
and max goelitz. The Dyson
Sphere was developed for
lille3000’s UTOPIA Festival,
supported by Maison
Ruinart. Photo: John
Varghese
The artists in this exhibition engage with landscape to transform looking into witnessing: to observe whorls of pollution recorded on delicate rice paper (Vivek Vilasini); washing an entire ship’s hull by hand, to acknowledge the loss of the Aral Sea (Patty Chang); or to closely examine each detail of a dense landscape, at night (Sharon Lockhart).

Investigation (detail), 2017.
Rice paper and atmospheric
pollutants, 31 unites, 43.2 x
43.2 cm each. Courtesy of
the artist and 1X1 Art
Gallery. Photo: John
Varghese
NYUAD Spring Exhibition
Location: Dubai – United Arab Emirates
Duration: 22 February – 4 June