Abu Dhabi Art shows off a world of talent
The world’s first robot artist,
Ai-Da, was among the many attractions at the 11th edition of Abu Dhabi Art, which ran until Nov. 23 at the capital’s Manarat Al-Saadiyat creative hub.
This year, the fair boasted 50 leading regional and international galleries exhibiting more than
300 works of art by emerging and established talent.
Jeddah’s Hafez Gallery made its fourth appearance at the fair, bringing together a display of works by nearly 12 multidisciplinary artists from Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Egypt. Meanwhile,
Tunisia’s Elmarsa Gallery displayed figurative paintings bursting with expression and color by the 20th century Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine, who was highly regarded by the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.
Beyond the gallery sections, the Abu Dhabi Art team had set up a number of special exhibitions. “New Horizons” looked into conceptual works created by Chinese and Indian artists, while “Gateway: Fragments, Yesterday and Today” explored archaeological artifacts of ceramics and musical instruments on loan from the Al-Ain Museum.
Curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, the “Focus: Drawing, Tracing, Mapping” section was dedicated to understanding the medium of drawing.
Kholeif said: “Here, drawing is not the simple act of applying graphite to paper, but rather, drawing is performance and social sculpture… drawings reveal hidden histories and contour realities. Drawing becomes a means to see the unseen.”
Among the eight participating galleries in the section was the Saudi Athr Gallery, with a solo booth of serene drawings of circles by the Saudi-Palestinian artist Dana Awartani. Created especially for the fair, the gallery said the works symbolized “acts of meditation and moments of contemplation as part of (Awartani’s) daily rigor of being an artist, a method she frequently adopts to quiet the mind.”
UAE social enterprise, 81 Designs, forged an artistic dialogue between eL Seed and Palestinian women artisans from Lebanon’s Ain Al-Hilweh refugee camp. Inspired by eL Seed, the women reproduced some of his calligraphic artworks through a time-honored tradition of crossstitch embroidery.