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Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi has announced the recipients of its inaugural Artistic Development Exhibition Programme.
Artists Ammar Al Attar, Jill Magi and Mohammed Khalid have been selected for the 2021/2022 edition. As part of the programme, they will work with art educators and curators towards producing a new body of work that will go on view at the Warehouse421 space in Mina Zayed in 2022.
Al Attar, 40, is an Ajman-born photographer and mixed media artist whose practice documents Emirati material culture, as well its place in an ever-changing society.
Magi, who is currently an associate arts professor at NYU Abu Dhabi, is an artist, critic and educator whose work is rooted in poetry and literature. She has shown her text-image works on textile at the university’s Project Space gallery in 2015.
The youngest of the recipients is Khalid. Born in 1996, the artist excavates the everyday to find hidden narratives and speculative identities. His works range from drawings to sculpture, and he has previously shown at Warehouse421 and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The Artistic Development Exhibition Programme is part of Warehouse421’s new five-year plan for public programming, announced earlier this year. In the coming years, the centre will generate 80 per cent of its programming from new training schemes and grants, which includes five open calls.
Recipients of the programme will be awarded Dh10,000 as a participation fee along with a Dh24,000 production fee.
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The idea behind the programme, which launched its open call in May this year, is to provide artists in the UAE an opportunity to develop an exhibition from ideation to execution, as well as initiatives for public engagement.
In the following months, the artists will conceive ways to connect and communicate their ideas and works to the community with the support of Warehouse421 and its network.
The Artistic Development Exhibition Programme is one of a series of open calls from Warehouse421 in 2021, alongside the Artistic Research Grant, the Curatorial Developmental Exhibition Programme, Warehouse421 Homebound Residency Programme, and the Internship and Mentorship Programme.