The art of gaming
An oil painting of or a sculpture inspired by a chess piece could be seen at a new exhibition at d3
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ames ranging from Street Fighter to scrabble are the inspiration for an exhibition running throughout September. Board games, card games, video games, and games played outdoors will provide artists with the ammunition to create The Games Art Show ( GAS), the debut exhibition at Citizen E gallery in Dubai’s new design district d3.
GAS will feature work from local and international artists in a variety of forms, be they traditional, digital, sculpture, or video. The curator of the exhibition and the owner of the gallery, Jalal Luqman, says games, particularly video games, can be beautiful.
“Did you ever look at the depth of detail in a map in the game Risk? Or did you ever stand at the top of a building in Assassin’s Creed and look at the beauty of the scenery? The art that goes into games is amazing, yet not given the attention it deserves. Character artists and game artists work gruelling hours under so much stress with short deadlines to produce amazing art and GAS will celebrate this work.”
Jalal expects some pieces to be inspired by games such as backgammon, chess, scrabble and even hopscotch. Entry is free and all work is for sale.
Part of the exhibition will be a gaming corner, Fahad’s Couch, filled with retro video games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda that people will be able to play. GameBoy classics Tetris, Pokémon and Frogger will also be there, as will famous games on the Nintendo 64, NES, Sega and PlayStation 1 consoles. Its curator Fahad Mubara says finding these digital antiques can be tricky. He searches online, raids his network of collectors who sell games and also uses Instagram, which is now one of the main sources of finding games, he says. September 2 to 30 D3 District, Ras Al Khor, Dubai, daily 10am to 8pm, free. Tel: (050) 6686028. Taxi: Ras Al Khor. citizene.net