Lamya Gargash Salim, 2005. 49.9 x 70 cm. Digital photograph.
The rapidly growing art scene in the United Arab Emirates is the subject of a new exhibition, 'Emirati Expressions', opening today in Abu Dhabi city. Curated by Anne Baldassari, Director of the Musée National Picasso in Paris and former Curator of the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, 'Emirati Expressions' offers the first comprehensive picture of current artistic activity in the UAE, with a selection of more than 165 paintings, sculptures, drawings, calligraphy, prints, photographs, videos, mixed media works and installations by 64 Emirati artists.
'Emirati Expressions' is presented by Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), the organization that is developing Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island Cultural District. The exhibition is the third in an ongoing series being organized by TDIC as part of its artistic and educational programming leading up to the opening of the Cultural District.
"'Emirati Expressions' is another in an important series of 'firsts' presented by TDIC in Gallery One at Emirates Palace," stated His Excellency Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of TDIC and of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage. "Since the beginning of 2008, this gallery has seen The Arts of Islam, the first exhibition in the Middle East of the world-renowned collection of Nasser D. Khalili, followed by Picasso Abu Dhabi, the first major retrospective in the Middle East of the work of the great 20th century master of European art.
"Now, as the next step in a logical progression, we open Gallery One to the first major survey of the artwork being created in our own land by today's Emirati artists."
"What appeals to us in this exhibition is the 'movement of thought,' as Picasso called it," stated Anne Baldassari, "a movement that is revealed in this place where so many strong currents flow into one another. Here the enclosure of the gallery can become a kind of experimental 'black box,' where cultural, semantic and iconographic forces come together and give rise to the unknown, unseen and uncreated."
To make 'Emirati Expressions' an engaging and informative experience for as wide an audience as possible, the project includes the publication of a fully illustrated catalogue, the creation of a comprehensive website (including additional works of art) and an exhibition design that incorporates a space for public events.
The exhibition design, which has been conceptualized by Anne Baldassari and realized by the distinguished firm of Colin Morris Associates Ltd., London, provides a presentation area at the entrance, where public programs organized throughout the course of the exhibition will bring together selected Emirati artists in conversation with representatives of TDIC partner institutions, such as the Musée du Louvre, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Royal Academy of Arts, among others. A second dedicated space will provide an environment where visitors may see a film introducing the exhibition, watch video interviews with the artists and attend scheduled presentations of media works.
The third major space is the main spine of the installation: the "black box" gallery designed to enhance the visitor's sense of discovery.
'Emirati Expressions' will remain on view at Gallery One of Emirates Palace through April 16. The Emirati Expressions website, which will go live in mid-January 2009, is hosted at www.artsabudhabi.ae.
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