The Young Collectors Auction Ayyam Gallery Dubai
The Young Collectors Auction_Ayyam Gallery Dubai
Ginane Bacho- Afterimage Exhibition- Ayyam Gallery
Art Week at Alserkal Avenue 2018
What a week! This year, Art Week at Alserkal Avenue welcomed visitors from around the world. We hosted 59 events, 23 exhibitions, 11 Majlis Talks, 10 galleries participating in Art Dubai, 8 pop-up projects, 3 open studios, and one public intervention by Hale Tenger, commissioned by Alserkal Programming.
Featured (in order of appearance):
Hale Tenger, 'Under', 2018, mixed media installation. Audio: Serdar Ateşer, Electro/acoustic consultant: Hakan Kurşun (pbm.com.tr), Dubbing artist: Ceren Türkmenoğlu. Commissioned by Alserkal Programming.
Kenny Scharf, 'Inner and Outer Space'. Leila Heller Gallery.
Philip Taaffe. Leila Heller Gallery.
Zak Ové, 'Star Liner'. Lawrie Shabibi.
Vivek Vilasini, 'Between One Shore and Several Others'. 1x1 Gallery.
Majlis Talks: Hale Tenger, Zak Ové, Stuart Comer
Fully Booked (pop-up project)
Farhad Moshiri, 'Close-up', The Third Line
'Art & Jewelry' group exhibition, Custot Gallery Dubai
'Dubai Plan 2021' group exhibition, Satellite studio
'++VIDEO++' group exhibition, Salsali Private Museum
'Unpredictable Horizons', Jean Boghossian. Ayyam Gallery.
'Space and Place', Jene Highstein. Jean-Paul Najar Foundation.
'Unknown Program', Ali Tnani. Elmarsa Gallery.
'Visual Dialogue', curated by Fereydoun Ave (pop-up project)
'Authentic Marks' exhibition and workshop by Shaghaf Group (pop-up project)
'1,102: A Social Experiment', Abdulrahman Gazzaz (pop-up project)
'Demolishing buildings, buying waste' by Nazgol Ansarinia. Green Art Gallery.
'Cultural Narratives', Selections Arts (pop-up project)
'Ishara: Signs, Symbols, and Shared Languages' group exhibition, Concrete (in partnership with UAE Unlimited)
'Inhabiting the Grid', Haleh Redjaian. Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde
'Mouaqat - Temporary', Hazem Harb (pop-up project/research studio)
'Umbra', Gil Heitor Cortesão. Carbon 12.
'Losers Club' group exhibition. Grey Noise.
'Al Doobah', Ayesha Hadhir/Zayed University (pop-up project)
'Reclamation Ground', Serendipity Arts Foundation (pop-up project)
Syrian artists decamp to Dubai to show their work
A Syrian art gallery, which has decamped from Damascus to Dubai, is showcasing the work of home-grown artists.
Not only is it putting their creations on display to the public, but some pieces are also going under the hammer.
STORYLINE:
From Damascus to Dubai.
Inside the Ayyam Gallery, tucked away in an industrial zone in Dubai's evolving arts district, there's a frenzy of action.
Pieces by Syrian artists are drawing auction bids from collectors.
Step-by-step for nearly two years, the gallery operators moved 15 artists and their families to Dubai - hiring them as employees to get visas in line with the system in the United Arab Emirates that requires a person or company to act as sponsors.
Meanwhile, Ayyam crews managed to ship about 3,000 paintings, sculptures and other pieces as fighting intensified in the Syrian capital.
For us it was really important for them also to be able to get them out of harms way. So they could actually create what they want to create without fear of repercussions to them or their family, says Hisham Samawi, Managing Partner of the Ayyam Gallery.
Among those under the gallery's wings in Dubai is one of the rising stars in Syria's revolution-inspired art world, Tammam Azzam.
He's a Damascus-born painter who has shifted to prints and multimedia work seeking to showcase the horrors of conflict.
One piece, Freedom Graffiti, superimposed the golden-hued sensuality of Gustav Klimt's masterpiece The Kiss'' over a shattered and bullet-scarred apartment wall near Homs.
The image became an Internet sensation with hundreds of thousands of views and established the 33-year-old Azzam as one of the artistic voices of the civil war.
It was on every publication and everything around the world, and it spoke and it touched so many people and that's really the power of it all, says Samawi.
That's the greatest thing that we were able to do by getting these artists out of Syria, is to allow the art to continue and not to die there.
While the 15 artists are now away from the continuing conflict back home, they are still deeply connected and influenced by the bloodshed they have left behind.
Speaking from his studio, with a large print of Freedom Graffiti behind him, Tammam Azzam says it's always on his mind.
A lot of us leaving Syria and Beirut or in Egypt; or in Europe. And all of them now have the same feeling about what is happening in Syria, so nobody can stand away from what is happening there, he says.
All of them changed what they are doing in their artworks.
The Syrian refugee diaspora - now at two million and growing - has fanned out across the region and beyond for than two years from tent camps in Jordan to others trying to rebuild lives in cities such as Beirut and Istanbul.
But the Gulf states present a paradox: Deeply involved in the war as some of the strongest backers for the Syrian rebels yet keeping in place their tight entry controls that effectively block most refugees.
The gallery and auction serves as a window into a small but forward-looking effort to save one niche of Syria's artistic community - with no end in sight to the civil war that has already claimed more than 100,000 lives.
So it's almost like you know your family is in trouble you help them and we had the means, we had the network to be able to do it. So you know it has been a struggle, it's been about a couple years in checking out which countries we can get them to, says Samawi.
But it's something that we never really hesitated and it's a good thing that we started when we did because it becomes more and more difficult as every month passes.
The gallery not only showcases the creations of Syrians, but also works by artists from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.
The shooters aim at the runners.
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Murder Nature: Solo exhibition of Mark Ganzon at the FN Design Studio in Dubai, UAE
10 Top Art Galleries in Dubai
10 Top Art Galleries in Dubai
⭐ Select Hotel in Dubai:
In Dubai you will probably often hear “there’s not enough culture” from both visitors and residents. It is not 100% true: from one hand the galleries and arty events are not that easy to find in this city as shopping malls and boutique restaurants, but on the other hand you may discover completely other side of Dubai by visiting exhibitions in the dust of Al Quoz or have a coffee with friends in a gallery in the middle of old Dubai. Discover art galleries in Dubai with our guide and be part of the growing art scene from local and regional artists.
✨ 00:31 - XVA
✨ 01:13 - Gallery One
✨ 01:48 - The Third Line
✨ 02:20 - Elmarsa Gallery
✨ 02:57 - Ayyam Gallery
✨ 03:35 - Cuadro Fine Art Gallery
✨ 04:03 - Opera Gallery
✨ 04:34 - Lawrie Shabibi
✨ 05:08 - The Empty Quarter
✨ 05:47 - Green Art Gallery
A true haven for artists and art lovers alike,Majlis Gallery Since 1989 Dubai
A platform for international and local artists and a meeting place for creative minds, A space you should visit and feel in Dubai!
Alserkal Avenue- Cultural District
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LOCATION MAP:
Alserkal Avenue was founded by Mr. Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal and through his vision he developed a space in the heart of Al Quoz 1 to encourage and invite all galleries and creatives alike to be a part of the first organically grown Art hub in Dubai.
Alserkal Avenue is a complex of over ten galleries including Ayyam
Gallery, Carbon12, GPP, Etemad Gallery, Gallery Isabelle Van Den
Eynde, Green Art Gallery, Satellite Voices, Lawrie Shabibi, Mojo and Salsali Private Museum, all renovated from warehouses and located in Al Quoz 1.
Galleries Night at Dubai's Arts District
Save the date for the opening of the season at Alserkal Avenue, when almost 20 art galleries and creatives within will open with new exhibitions! A night dedicated to art, visited by collectors, artists and anyone interested in the arts and full of delicious refreshments!
Safwan Dahoul's Dubai Metro Collaboration
Safwan Dahoul’s iconic portraitures of female protagonists covers the surface of a Dubai Metro carriage. As continuation of Dahoul’s monochromatic Dream series, the newly commissioned pieces see the addition of a crumpled effect that adds to an already heightening dramatic composition.
Part of an initiative launched by the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and the Road & Transportation Authority, the project was inaugurated in simultaneity with Art Dubai, and showcased a photographic work by HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum scaled up to one of the metro carriages. Pursuing celebrations of the Dubai Art Season, the carriage adorned by Dahoul’s Dreams is unveiled in conjunction with two more, presenting commissioned works by Emirati artist Abdul Qader Al Rais and Algerian Rachid Koraichi. Bringing art closer to local audiences, the project also aims at highlighting the multicultural circle of art practitioners living in Dubai.
Inside The Cultural Foundation For Emerging Artists In Dubai,A Visual Treat
Alserkal Cultural foundation is a Hub for International and local artist in Dubai, Its located in Bur Dubai and is a perfect place to escape to a colorful world, In an Interview with Afia khan, she further explains how they support young artists from around the world .
Syrian artist (Short documentary)
A documentary short about Syrian artist,
Noor bahjat
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1991, Noor Bahjat now lives in the United Arab Emirates. Having previously taken part in several group exhibitions and two Solo shows in Dubai and Manila (Her first solo with Ayyam gallery in Dubai in August 2015). Graduating with honors from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus, Bahjat works from detailed sketches and self-portraits in a painterly, expressionist style and with a primarily figurative subject matter. Skillfully transitioning between warm and cool palettes Bahjat creates deeply atmospheric canvases infused with reoccurring, symbolic objects exploring the human form with attention to mundane moments in life. The Portrayed figures are expressionless variations of herself, her thoughts, and observation of others.
Her latest work explores the human relationships with nature, and how this relationships is weakening within in the modern systems that we live in.
That systems which taking over our minds, filling them with small details of life, and as time passes human are unable to enjoy what is natural and real.
In her work Bahjat goes back to the origin of life, which is in her case the ocean, and explores the development of life from there to what we have become now, and how the future generation will shape in the light of chaos, speed, constant commercial and hidden messages being inserted to our heads without a choice.
According to Bahjat, being a part of the modern life, system deprives humans of their free will. The solution, as depicted in her work is to go back to primitiveness and unite with soul and act with mother Earth which is the only reality, and to pass this knowledge to the next generations.
Show Biz- Al Serkal Avenue
Raising the shutter doors on the annual Al Serkal galleries night when galleries will simultaneously unveil contemporary art exhibitions.
And on the music front The Fridge introduced us to new local talent.
Opening the treasure trove of artistic venues in the Avenue we start at Ayyam Gallery and the Young Collectors Auction preview .
This presented an opportunity for aspiring collectors to bid on an array of works from established and emerging artists of the region; featuring painting, photography, limited-edition prints, and sculpture from prominent Syrian and Iranian artists.
Around the corner, FN Designs showcased 6 artists with different points of view on the word Wasta.
FN is actually the Arabic word for “the arts” inspiring curiosity, creativity and aspirations totally agreeing that reality wasn't built for everyone.
Over to the newly opened A4 Space ,which housed a pop-up of Fashion Forward’s Garden concept, that’s showcasing cutting edge regional accessory designers.
Gulf Photo Plus collaborated with Majority World, to showcase the work of 6 photographers, sharing unique insights into local cultures.
And Green Art Gallery presented Works on Paper, a collection of over 50 pieces by modern Arab artists.
With a focus on drawing and storytelling, what a fantastic night to kick off the new arts season in Dubai, at this ever popular hub for Dubai- based arts and creativity
Music credits: Heartland by Scott.P.Schreer
Middle Eastern artists appear at Art Dubai
(20 Mar 2018) LEADIN
Art Dubai will open for its twelfth year tomorrow and this year artists are using the platform to challenge mainstream media's narratives about the region.
STORYLINE
Art lovers wait outside a room to see a prize-winning video installation.
Inside, the screen plays intense scenes play by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, an artist born in Amman and now based in Beirut.
He is the winner of the 10th edition of the Abraaj Group Art Prize and his work 'Walled Unwalled' is being featured at Art Dubai, an art fair in its 12th year.
While the interpretation is up to the audience, Abu Hamdan does want his piece to challenge narratives about people's stories and human rights presented in the digital age and mainstream media.
What I do is art that really tries to experiment with the ways in which politics is represented and people are heard and seen, and that means not to kind of like just fall into the ways in which perhaps journalism would do it or human rights advocacy does it, but really to kind of use art as a platform to experiment with the ways in which things are heard on a structural level, he says.
The Abraaj Group Art Prize is awarded specifically to artists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region.
I think artists have the power to change points of views and perspectives and they have important voices that give us insights into the most compelling issues of our time, says Dana Farouki, Chair of the Abraaj Group Art Prize.
One of the galleries showcasing is Zawyeh Gallery, the first commercial gallery to open in Ramallah in the West Bank since the late 1970s.
Artist Aissa Deebi is Palestinian, but now lives in Geneva. He says he struggles with how the war in his homeland is portrayed through the international media.
His series 'This Is How I Saw Gaza' takes images he sees on the news and transforms them into oil paintings.
The way that information is available today is your choice to have access to it or you want to totally ignore it and I felt that as an artist, I don't want to ignore it, I want to deal with it, he says.
Art Dubai offers a unique platform for emerging artists in the region to showcase their work.
Faris Alosaimi, an artist from Riyadh, recently completed an artist residency in Abu Dhabi where he worked alongside other resident artists from around the world.
He said the opportunities for Arab and Middle Eastern artists are growing.
I think there's a huge opportunity that's going on, especially in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East of course, but Saudi Arabia it's coming, it's everything changed. So we do have now galleries, we are building a museum, we are introducing this new places and the government itself is very interested in our art so that's a very good time to be an artist in the Middle East.
Art Dubai runs from 21 to 24 March 2018.
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Community ART Night at Alserkal Avenue
AlserkalAvenue.com housing almost 20 art galleries and creative studios holds Art Community Nights when all creatives open their doors on the same night for the public to attend, share and exchange ideas.
Saudi artists tackle social issues
LEADIN:
Contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia are finding fame by pushing the boundaries and tackling serious social issues.
And now some of their work is travelling beyond the kingdom's borders, with exhibitions currently being held in Dubai.
STORYLINE:
Treasured art pieces from Saudi Arabia's thriving art scene.
Here at the Ayyam Gallery in Dubai, they're exhibiting work by Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem.
This month, collectors rushed to the city's annual Art Dubai to pick up a piece by the artist.
But within minutes of doors opening, his 12-piece collection - exhibited by the Ayyam Gallery - was scooped up by one collector for a price tag of well over $1 million USD.
That's nothing out of the ordinary for Gharem.
In 2011, one of his pieces sold through Christie's Dubai went for more than $840,000 USD to an Iranian investor.
It's a sign of the dramatic rise of Saudi modern art on the global scene, but also of its artists who are on the front lines pushing the kingdom's censorship red lines through modern art works that tackle taboo topics like religion and women's rights.
The kingdom's modern art scene has become a platform for Saudi artists - like Gharem and others - to voice their frustration with the kingdom's ultra-conservative interpretations of Islam and their country's most sensitive issues without coming into direct friction with its rulers.
They say their art is reaching the public in new ways.
At the Dubai-based gallery 'Cuadro', they're exhibiting a collection by Saudi artist Manal Al Dowayan, named Crash.
This collection focuses on Saudi news clippings about the deaths of Saudi women teachers in car crashes whose names are never mentioned in the articles - leaving them nameless and anonymous.
The artist says the collection is aimed at magnifying these women's deaths in order to humanise them.
It's also said to be a subtle critique of the ways in which Saudi women are rendered voiceless in life and in death.
The burgeoning art scene in Saudi Arabia is centred in the western city of Jeddah, where several galleries have sprung up in recent years, showcasing the works of artists in a country where art is not taught in public schools.
The city is also home to hundreds of public sculptures by world-renowned artists.
It's vibrant, it's creative. It's grassroots, it's very interesting, it's very young, says Manal Al Dowayan.
Although we do have a history of modern art but contemporary art is the new movement that's happening within youth. It's centred in one region because of their history, which is the western region region, Jeddah.
At The Ayyam Gallery in Dubai, Founder Khaled Samawi says he noticed a growing appetite for contemporary art out of Saudi Arabia and opened what he claims is the first foreign-owned art gallery last year in Jeddah.
He says he initially they faced challenges to importing artworks.
Initially we had an incident where a lot of works were censored, he says.
Recently, we've had no works censored even though what we show in Saudi Arabia is the same as what we show in Dubai or what we show in London or what we show in Beirut. We represent the same artists in all our locations and we don't change programming based on which location we are in.
In Saudi Arabia, all public artworks must be approved by the Culture Ministry.
Samawi was censored once by authorities, but he says attitudes have now started to change.
Artists still struggle with navigating the well-known redlines in Saudi Arabia.
As Saudi artists become more internationally recognised, wealthy Saudis are helping back them financially.
Renata Papsch of the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives believes the support provided by the foundation has helped expose Saudi artists to a wider audience.
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samah christie Dubai - Samah Al Sayed
تقرير سماح السيد - قناة العربية
African and Middle East art centre stage in Dubai
UAE Dubai March 19th, 2013
1. Wide shot Water Cargo by Romuald Hazoume, from Benin
2. Close up of water bags made from tyre inner tubes
3. Wide shot Water Cargo
4. Wide shot people chatting in gallery
5. Close up exhibit
6. SOUNDBITE: (French) Artist Romuald Hazoume:
We need to deal with the issue of water today. We all focus on petrol but we need to think about water, never mind petrol, if we have water we can live.
7. AK47 decorated with flowers and butterflies Where Souls Dwell by Laila Shawa
8. Wide shot Dakar, Senegal, gallery.
9. Close up of Essential Colours by Kansi, price $3270 US dollars
10. Sculpture Le Pain de l'orphelin (Bread of the Orphan) by Joseph Francis Sumegne, from Cameroon; price $10,865 US dollars
11. Diverse City by Boris Nzebo, from Cameroon; price $3,950 US dollars
12. Mid shot Man and woman looking at paintings by Ablade Glover. On the left is Market Confrontation priced $17,500 US dollars and on right Red Forrest price $18, 500 US dollars
13.Close up painting Market Confrontation
14.Wide shot Market Confrontation and Red Forrest
15. Set up of Bisi Silva, founder and artistic director for Contemporary Art, Lagos
16. Cutaway people listening
17. SOUNDBITE: (english) Bisi Silva, founder and artistic director for Contemporary Art, Lagos
The fact that Marker is focusing on West Africa shows that there is a growing interest in contemporary art from Africa. And this is an opportunity and a platform for us to present the dynamic practice that is going on, on the continent.
18. Basket Ball, Football and Basketball by Khaled Jarrar. The balls were made from concrete shipped out of the Israeli border wall. Price is seven thousand US dollars each ball. They aim to show that ordinary, human, things can be made from something that to the artist causes so much pain.
19. New Guernica by Oussama Diab. Price $45,000 US dollars. Painting refers to the situation in Syria.
20. Mid shot Tammam Azzam, Syrian artist, standing by his painting Freedom Graffiti - Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. Price $20, 000 US dollars with gallery visitor.
21. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Tammam Azzam, Syrian artist:
After the revolution my work changed. When I moved to Dubai I didn't have a studio or anywhere to work so I turned to digital work as I wanted to express my feelings about the war and highlight what was going on there to the world.
22. Wide shot of Saudi Gallery Athr exhibiting photos of Mecca by Ahmed Mater
23. Artificial Light by Ahmed Mater, price $42,000 US dollars
24. Mid short of people viewing Mixed Emotions by Abdul Qader Al Rais, price $150, 700 US dollars
25. Midshot of people viewing Desert (facing picture) by Najat Makki, price $30,150 US dollars
26. Pan from Nazar by Gavin Tuck; price $75,000 US dollars, to wide shot of gallery
27. Wide shot of man walking in front of Liar by MentalKLINIK price $37,000 US dollars.
28. Wide shot Sister Moon Sun Umbrella by Haluk Akakce, price $57,000 US dollars
29. Set up Antonia Carver, Art Dubai director
30. Cutaway of MGH7 by Shezad Dawood, Pakistani British artist; price $6,300 US dollars
31. SOUNDBITE: ( English) Antonia Carver, Art Dubai Director.
Has acted as a funnel for artists out of Iran and increasingly so out of Pakistan and also across the Arab world where people find themselves in countries that are either closed or undergoing political troubles and they tend to use Dubai also as a funnel to the outside world. But we see that, increasingly, Art Dubai as a fair is really increasing its global footprint out towards East Asia and towards Africa
31. Wide shot Victoria Miro, London, gallery showing works from Yayoi Kusama
32. Close up of Yayoi Kusama
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