DUBAI – In the age of Instagram and all digital outlets, it is so  important to see art and appreciate the artist’s work in person. In its 14th iteration, Art Dubai was one of the first institutions in the world to provide the opportunity of attending a physical art fair since the coronavirus outbreak in March 2019.

My name is Stephany Sanossian and I attended this year’s Art Dubai and brought to artmejo my favourite picks from the fair! After seeing over 100 works by artists from all over the globe, I was truly inspired by each and it was tough to pick and choose! Out of everything, here are my highlights of Art Dubai 2021:

What makes you stop and stare at a particular artwork?

For me, it is two things. One, the uniqueness of the work. Two, the artist’s ability to take me inside their thoughts and own world using a simple piece of work.

ATHR Art is a Saudi Arabian contemporary art gallery with a spectacular booth at Art Dubai. Curated by Alaa Tarabzouni, the gallery was representing artists Sara Abu Abdallah, Mohammad Alfaraj and Ahaad Al Amoudi.

‘Salad Zone’

Contemporary Saudi artist Abdallah uses video, installation, poetry, images and conversations to create her work. “Through references to gender roles and the female experience, (she) explores issues of obscurity and value, probing the social and cultural conditions of contemporary Saudi Arabia,” according to Athr Gallery. “Salad Zone” is a 20-minute single-channel video projection that is both funny and alarming.

It was inspired by a story a friend told Abdallah about an argument that took place at her home, the artist told Arab News last year. “My friend was so angry that she took a stick and started smashing the TV,” she said. “I thought it was funny, because the TV room seems to be where a lot of anger develops. It’s also the place in a home where people gather the most.”

The artworks, which encompass a range of media, including music, sculpture and performance, can be found in two main areas: The King Abdul Aziz Historical Center and the King Abdullah Financial District, where visitors can also view “Light Upon Light,” an exhibition of light art from the 1960s to the present, which is on view until June 12.
While the global art community will have to view the artworks virtually, Saudis have already been flocking to the venues in record numbers.
“One of the most critical aspects of Vision 2030 is the flourishing of the Saudi creative economy, which we are trying to foster, and this is one of the main highlights of Noor Riyadh as a program,” Anas Najmi, adviser to the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, told Arab News. “Despite all of the challenges of the pandemic, we managed to give the experience to 15,000 visitors in just one day. Secondly, over 1,200 jobs were created as part of the Noor Riyadh festival, half of which are for Saudis.”

RIYADH — The “Light Upon Light” Exhibition, which is being held at the King Abdullah Financial District as part of the first edition of Noor Riyadh, is the largest group art exhibition that monitors the artistic movement in the lighting arts since 1960s until todate.

It includes 30 masterworks of light art divided into four sectional “rays” that survey light as an artistic medium: “Perceiving Light,” “Experiencing Light,” “Projecting Light,” and “Environmental Light.” Each ray blends time and unites established artists of diverse geographic origin.

From immersive installation to video and sculpture, visitors to “Light Upon Light” will experience a richly illuminated exhibition in all its spatial and sensory phenomena. This historical presentation of light art is a groundbreaking event for culture in Saudi Arabia. Noor Riyadh, one of the world’s most exciting festivals of light and art combining the highest quality of light artworks across the city, began on March 18 and will run through until April 3. Filled with spectacular installations, the fest will light up the night sky of the capital city of Riyadh.

The “Projecting Light,” pavilion presents artworks that use the transmission of light to create the work instead of focusing on light as a medium. In 2019, Saudi artist Sultan Bin Fahd worked on the art piece titled “Once he was a ruler”, which is a collection of photographs, in which ancient sculptures depicting the kings of the ancient Lihyan Kingdom in Northern Arabia are shown, where he modified them by placing layers of X-ray images, and these images were collected, superimposed in illuminated light boxes at the event.

Through his abstract drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, the artist tackled cultural issues related to his homeland in the Kingdom. The artist also re-narrates historical stories and novels using art, and transmits these narratives through contemporary means to reconstruct them with a personal character.

While Saudi artist Dana Awartani is participating in the event with her work “Divan Al Majhoul 2021, which combined textiles, hand embroidery and poetry.

دبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة (CNN) -- شهدت المملكة العربية السعودية، مساء الخميس، انطلاق احتفالية "نور الرياض" والتي تضمنت عرض أعمال فنية تفاعلية تعتمد على الإضاءة في مواقع متعددة بأنحاء مدينة الرياض

وتضمنت الاحتفالية مشاركة 60 من كبار الفنانين في مجال فنون الإضاءة، ينتمون لأكثر من 20 دولة حول العالم، منهم 23 من الفنانين السعوديين، وفقاً لوكالة الأنباء السعودية "واس"

وتشتمل احتفالية "نور الرياض" على 60 عملاً فنياً، تضم جميع أشكال فنون الضوء، من بينها أعمال تاريخية وهندسية وضوئية، ومنحوتات، وعروض للإضاءة، وعروض تفاعلية، وقطع حركية، وتركيبات وأعمال خارجية، ومجموعة من أشكال الفن الخفيف، يتاح لسكان وزوار مدينة الرياض الاستمتاع بها عن قرب في مختلف أرجاء المدينة، مع تخصيص مركزين رئيسين للاحتفالية في كلٍ من مركز الملك عبدالله المالي ومركز الملك عبدالعزيز التاريخي بالمربع

Artissima presents Artissima XYZ, the contemporary art fair's new digital platform that will run alongside the physical exhibitions scheduled to show at the Turin Museum Foundation in Italy. For the 2020 edition, the Back to the Future, Drawings, and Present Future sections will live on the Artissima XYZ digital platform supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation from November 3 to December 9. The XYZ name itself derives from the intersectional approach of the virtual platform, which translates the physical elements into an immersive experience on digital channels. Some of this content will be produced directly by the galleries and artists, while others will be overseen by Ordet's editorial team, consisting of Edoardo Bonaspetti, Stefano Cernuschi, and Anna Bergamasco. 

https://xyz.artissima.art/Sezioni%2520curate/disegni/

DUBAI: The sound of glass and hard metal emanates from a room in Dubai’s Jameel Arts Center. Something is being broken. Step inside the gallery and the noise is revealed to be coming from a video installation by Saudi artist Sarah Abu Abdallah called “Salad Zone,” in which two women in black abayas are repeatedly hitting a large television. 

The work, a 20-minute single-channel video projection in color and sound — originally commissioned for “Rhizoma,” a group show that took place during the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 — is both alarming and humorous. Abdallah herself is a protagonist in the film, and like her other multidisciplinary work, “Salad Zone” oscillates between the real, the poetic and the absurd.

Working across video, painting, text and installation, Saudi artist Sarah Abu Abdullah is known for her intimate and personal reflection on what it’s like to live in the region, especially as a female artist. And for the first time ever, she’s brining her art to Dubai’s Jameel Arts Centre with her exhibition, ‘For the first time in a long time’.

A co-production between Jameel Arts Centre and the Kunstverein Hamburg, where the exhibition began in August 2019, Sarah’s work will be on show until 11 April, and combines existing video works with new commissions including a large-scale painting on textile as well as an installation of living plants.

Four Saudi artists have been showcasing their work at a unique traveling biennale that has visited 43 cities in 23 countries, and concludes this week in Riyadh.

Fatima Al-Banawi, Sara Abu Abdallah, Faisal Samra and Ayman Zedani took part in the second BIENALSUR exhibition, which began in Buenos Aires in Argentina in May. Saudi Arabia is its only Middle East venue.

The Jameel Arts Centre has announced its programming for the new season, with a focus on urgent, discursive, and digital- and research-driven artworks.

The art space, which opened on Dubai Creek last year, has already made a name for itself as a key site of critical contemporary art with an Arab regional focus. The programme for the coming year continues this pattern: with the first solo exhibitions in the region for young Saudi artist Sarah Abu Abdallah and in 2020 for Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz. A major thematic exhibition, Phantom Limb, explores how fragments of material heritage can haunt the present.

Saudi-Arabien verbindet man sicher mit Vielem: mit der systematischen Unterdrückung von Frauen zum Beispiel, mit nicht eben zimperlichen Geheimdiensten oder mit einem brutalen Krieg gegen den Jemen - jedoch nicht unbedingt mit einer jungen Videokünstlerin. Eine solche ist nun im Hamburger Kunstverein zu entdecken, der Sarah Abu Abdallah die erste Einzelausstellung in Europa widmet. Ihr Titel: "For The First Time In A Long Time".

“There are so many myths in Al Balad,” says Effat Abdullah Fadag, who is curating this year’s 21, 39 Jeddah Arts, the annual visual art festival in the city. The academic and artist, who lives in Jeddah, is exploring the idea of myth in the exhibition, which, as in previous iterations, takes place at Gold Moor Mall and in the old house of Rabat Khunji in Al Balad. The latter area is renowned for its ­intricately carved doors and mashrabiyas, which date back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This year’s theme overall is Al Obour, or “crossing” – such as the new crossing into the old, the exterior crossing into the inside and, crucially, different generations crossing paths. Fadag explains that the emphasis on numerous generations came from Princess Jawaher bint Majed bin Abdulaziz, the patron of the event. “I gathered artists from different generations – pioneers, the upcoming generation, established artists – and added, of course, international artists.”

Saudi Arabia has launched a venture to become an arts hub. The Riyadh-based Misk Art Institute, sponsored by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aims to be a center of education, culture and society.
Hend Al-Mansour, who has said that women artists are still often overlooked in Saudi Arabia, has named five women to watch who overcome those barriers. Many have been recognized inside and outside Saudi Arabia, particularly in the US.

Jeddah’s art scene is seeing a rich flow of exhibitions and events that shed light on work from local and regional artists.
The 21,39 art initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting art and culture, has combined a series of events that began this month and will carry on until May, with support from the General Entertainment Authority.
One of the highlights of the activities is “And Along Came Polyester,” which gathers the work of five women artists from the Gulf to showcase their contemporary work in solo exhibitions under the same roof at Athr Gallery.

Arab News spoke to the five artists about their experiences at the “And Along Came Polyester” exhibition.

 A Thursday night of contemporary art puts a refreshing end to schools’ midyear break. Young people and art lovers filled Athr art platform based at Serafi Mega Mall’s office towers as the artwork of five woman artists from the Gulf had them mesmerized.
The exhibition entitled “And Along Came Polyester” displayed the work of Saudi artist Sarah Abu Abdullah’s “18 Blankets,” Qatari artist Aisha Al-Sowaidi’s “The Shift,” Bahraini artist Hala Al-Khalifa’s “She Wore Her Scares Like Wings,” Kuwaiti artist Monira Al-Qadiri’s “Legacy” and Emirati artist Layla Juma’s “A Still Moment in Thought & Spatial Perception.”

Mr. Mater is emblematic of an outspoken new generation of Saudis who are making a name for themselves, and Saudi Arabia, in the world of contemporary art. Like Mr. Mater, some of these artists are using their work as a tool of critique, testing the limits of what is permissible in the ultraconservative kingdom.

“Art has a big role to play for change,” Mr. Mater said in an interview in his studio in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. “We are needed to push these red lines, the restrictions. It’s more interesting here than where there is freedom of expression.”

Participating artists:

Sarah Abu Abdallah, Heba Amin, Eleanor Antin, Darren Bader, Tyler Coburn, Simon Denny, Jason Dodge, Maria Eichhorn, Dora Garcia, Liam Gillick, Melanie Gilligan, Goldin+Senneby, Pierre Huyghe, Roberto Jacoby, Hanne Lippard, Lee Lozano, Mathias Poledna, Mladen Stilinovic, UBERMORGEN 

Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany

For the first time, the exhibition FLUIDITY focuses on the fluid as a defining feature of contemporary social realities against the backdrop of the art-historical discussion of the phenomenon of dematerialization. Starting from the ground-breaking publication project "Six Years - The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972" by Lucy R. Lippard (1973), the group exhibition FLUIDITY establishes an update of international conceptual strategies.