3 Must-Visit Art Events In The UAE This Month
With the autumn art season in the UAE having launched this month, here’s our selection of events and exhibitions to check out
Exhibition: Ways of Seeing
NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi
3 September-17 November
The traveling exhibition Ways of Seeing curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath is coming to Abu Dhabi after showing in ARTER – Space for Art, Istanbul, and the Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain, Brussels. Based on John Berger’s 1972 novel of the same name, 26 artists and artist collectives with 41 diverse works develop upon the strategies employed that reconfigure our perceptions of the world around us. This edition will feature new works in the exhibition presentation, including pieces by Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Lateefa bint Maktoum, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Hassan Sharif, Cindy Sherman, and Thomas Struth.
Workshop: Critical Dialogues
Tashkeel, Dubai
Wednesdays, 26 September-12 December, 7pm
The third part of a 12 session series, Critical Dialogues encourages artists, writers, curators and the interested public to register for evenings that will draw forth critical thinking and new modes of artistic perception, interrogation and interpretation. On 26 September, independent arts writer Kevin Jones will re-assess how artists generate meaning around their practices, contextualise them, and the relationship between artist and museum. Providing all reading material, attendees will work through critical texts on local, regional and international exhibitions to discuss topics such as the mythification of the artist, post-colonialism, and identity.
Exhibition: Ala Younis, Steps toward the impossible
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah
29 September-5 January
This exhibition explores the last decade of the research-based practice of Jordanian artist Ala Younis. Exploring the formation of the modern Arab world, Younis has worked with sculpture, installation, drawing and moving image to develop pieces with strong political undertones. Presenting Nefertiti (2008), Tin Soldiers (2011) and Enactment (2017), insight is provided into themes such as how social life and subjectivity override historical narratives, and how banal items reveal a hidden storyline, while a new commission will enact a tale of nations, investors, capital and aesthetics mobilised by TV studios and broadcasting of Arabic dramas.