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Hieroglyphs to Islamic calligraphy: Louvre Abu Dhabi exhibition explores how western artists looked East to create abstract art
The UAE museum s first exhibition for 2021 examines cultural connections in more than 80 abstract artworks
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, right, Manuel Rabate, Louvre Abu Dhabi director, left, and Souraya Noujaim, scientific, curatorial and collections management director at Louvre Abu Dhabi at the museum s new exhibition Abstraction and Calligraphy - Towards a Universal Language. DCT Abu Dhabi
Installation view of Louvre Abu Dhabi s new exhibition Abstraction and Calligraphy - Towards a Universal Language shows Paul Klee s Oriental Bliss , right, on display next to Wassily Kandinsky s Trente [Thirty] . Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi; Seeing Things
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Mina Zayed is no longer what it was, and it’s not yet what it is intended to be. It lives, as photographer Finn-Murray Jones describes it in an essay, in “suspended existence”, hovering between its past as a key trading port and its future as a commercial and tourism hub.
In the Warehouse421 exhibition Mina Zayed: Reflections on Past Futures, 11 artists explore this liminal state, the port’s surrounding infrastructure and the communities that give life to the neighbourhood. At the heart of the show is the examination of place – how it is created, recreated and defined, and by whom.
The awards received more than 100,000 submissions from over 50 countries this year Masquerade III won Mireia Vilaplana, a photographer living in the UAE, the National Awards this year. The artist said of her work: This image is part of a series shot during the 2020 lockdown. [it is] a visual exploration of our true selves, it aims to explore photography’s particular ability to describe a historical moment in a conceptual form. Mireia Vilaplana
This photograph by Yoganathan Yoke of a long-tailed macaque, also known as the crab-eating macaque, was taken in the mangrove forest of Kuala Gula, Perak. I went there one evening, hoping to photograph birds or snakes, when I saw a group of macaques foraging in the mud for their last meal of the day. A ray of light from the sunset fell on this macaque just as it looked up. I felt it looked like a gesture of hope for the future, said photographer Yoke in a statement.
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A difficult year for many, 2020 was also hard on the arts, with closures and cancellations affecting artists, galleries and institutions alike. With the arrival of vaccines, this year may be a little more hopeful, and those on the local art scene seem determined to forge ahead. Over the
past few months, art exhibitions and cultural events have returned – from gallery openings to musical performances.
Art Dubai will be back with a physical fair in March after being forced to go virtual last year, while Sharjah Art Foundation’s March Meeting will also take place after being postponed.
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The Teeter Totter Wall, a trio of bright pink seesaws installed between the US and Mexico border, has been named Design of the Year 2020.
Created by architecture studio Rael San Fratello in July 2019, the installation allowed children on both sides of the border to play with the seesaws, despite being divided by a metal bars that comprise the wall.
The prestigious Design of the Year award, also known as Beazley Designs of the Year, is organised by London’s Design Museum.
Though the Teeter Totter Wall project was brief – the installation was only up for 40 minutes – it was seen by judges as “symbolically important”. Razia Iqbal, a chairperson for the Design Museum judges, noted that the work “talked about the possibility of things; that all kinds of things are possible when people come together with great ideas and determination .