Contemporary (Booth D9) and Modern (Booth M13)
16 - 19 March 2016
Ayyam Gallery announced its participation in the 2016 edition of Art Dubai. In addition to returning to the fair’s contemporary section, Ayyam Gallery will present a curated exhibition in the selected focus on seminal twentieth-century art at Art Dubai Modern
Nadim Karam and Faisal Samra—two of the Arab world’s foremost innovators—are featured in Ayyam Gallery’s contemporary art booth, highlighting some of the cutting-edge work that has come from the region in recent years.
For Art Dubai Modern, the gallery has organised a two-person exhibition that spotlights significant developments in abstraction of the Levant. As modern art in the Arab world peaked between the 1960s and 80s, painters Samia Halaby (b. 1936, Palestine) and Moustafa Fathi (b. 1942, d. 2008, Syria) sought to expand their individual approaches to abstraction by drawing from the historical legacy of regional visual culture, particularly Islamic art and the geometric abstraction of ancient forms.
Christie’s Upcoming Auctions Modern & Contemporary Art | Ten
16 March 2016
Christie’s Dubai will hold two sales featuring works by twentieth and twenty-first century Middle Eastern artists this March.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Christie’s Dubai, Ten will take place on 16 March, and features Safwan Dahoul’sUntitled (Woman Standing in the Rain) (2003).
Modern & Contemporary Art will take place later that evening. Among the sale’s highlights are two rare, early works by Samia Halaby that date back to the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji’s Once I Could Fly (2012); a painting from Tammam Azzam’s recent Storeys series; Silsila (Link)(2013), a unique, diasec photographic print from Sama Alshaibi’s eponymous series; Rashed Al Shashai’s installationBeep Beep (2015); and two untitled paintings (2005, 2015) by Afshin Pirhashemi are also included among the auction’s robust lineup.
Athier in conversation with Harper’s Bazaar Art editor-in-chief Rebecca Anne Proctor
12, Alserkal Avenue
Wednesday, 16 March at 12.00 pm
Athier will be in conversation with Harper’s Bazaar Art editor-in-chief Rebecca Anne Proctor on Wednesday, 16 March at 12pm in Ayyam Gallery’s newest space, 12 Alserkal Avenue, to discuss his most recent exhibition, Machine Hearts.
Known for an idiosyncratic style that explores the intricacies of human identity and destruction, here the artist attempts to visualise the heart and overall anatomy of an active soldier and asks: “What unseen mechanism powers human killing machines?”
Due to limited space, RSVP to rsvp@ayyamgallery.com or call 04 3236242 before 13 March 2016.
Khaled Jarrar at Hinterland Galerie Grenz Erfahrung (Borderline Experiences)
2 March - 2 April 2016
Khaled Jarrar will participate in Grenz Erfahrung (Borderline Experiences), a group show at Hinterland Galerie, Vienna, Austria from 2 March until 2 April. Jarrar’s video, BADminton (2012) will be featured among works that explore the notion of borders as places of friction and juxtaposition.
Ammar Abd Rabbo at Katara Cultural Village
I Dream of Aleppo (Aleppo: A Elles, Eux, Paix!)
15 - 30 March 2016
In association with the French Embassy, Ammar Abd Rabbo will be featured in a solo exhibition at Katara Cultural Village in Qatar. I Dream of Aleppo (Aleppo: A Elles, Eux, Paix!) consists of thirty-one photographs depicting the daily reality of living in the war-torn Syrian city, and serves as an homage to the residents trapped there.
The opening reception of the show is on 15 March at 7pm. Exhibition will be on view until 30 March 2016.
Safwan Dahoul Still Dreaming
14 March - 30 May 2016 | Dubai (11, Alserkal Avenue)
Opening reception: Monday, 14 March from 7.00 to 9.00 pm
A selection of new works from the Safwan Dahoul’s ongoing Dream series is highlighted in this large-scale exhibition, including several mural-sized canvases. Although he began the influential body of work nearly three decades ago, Dahoul’s featured paintings reveal several recent changes in both the narrative of the series and his aesthetic. In 2015, Dahoul began isolating his recurring figure in ambiguous settings, releasing her from darkened cityscapes and barren landscapes that resemble actual sites in Syria. This transition began with scenes of his heroine wading through a fog-covered sea and progressed to images of falling rain that indicate a raging tempest. In these examples and the works that followed, Dahoul depicts his female protagonist against a flat white background, an effect that alludes to radiating light, and renders her face and body with gradations of greys illuminated by soft highlights.
Athier Machine Hearts
14 March – 30 May 2016 | Dubai (12, Alserkal Avenue)
Opening reception: Monday, 14 March from 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Athier in conversation with Rebecca Ann Proctor: Wednesday, 16 March at 12.00 pm
Machine Hearts centres on large-scale, semi-abstracted paintings made over the last two years. Full of aggressive, visceral energy, the eponymous, featured series is a continuation of the Man of War series, in which the artist explored the contemporary phenomenon of drone warfare. Still preoccupied by the spectre of war, Athier’s new body of work attempts to visualise the mechanical heart of an active soldier and asks: What is the unseen core that powers a human killing machine?
Vibrantly coloured canvases depict twisted, organic elements wrapped around and seamlessly fused with rigid structures, creating dense clusters with a three dimensional, sculptural quality. Arteries and veins become entwined with industrial cables and pipes, and steel construction rods puncture soft, tissue-like matter, leaving the viewer with doubts about the humanity of the subject.
Rashed Al Shashai Salvation
14 March - 28 May 2016 | Dubai (DIFC)
Opening reception: Monday, 14 March from 7.00 to 9.00 pm
As an active member of a dynamic group of conceptual artists that has blossomed in Saudi Arabia in recent years, Rashed Al Shashai has created a celebrated body of work that explores the tensions between modern life, evolving social norms, and the religious precepts that shape everyday life.
Through photography and installation, Al Shashai draws from the often-overlooked details that surround him while tackling such issues as extremism, escapism, and mounting apathy. The artist’s photographs incorporate documentary elements in order to capture this critical moment in Saudi society while his installation works engage viewers by including the ordinary objects and imagery of everyday life.
