A host of galleries from the region and from around the world will be participating in the sixth edition of Abu Dhabi Art.
Internationally established names such as Hauser &Wirth, Leila Heller and Lisson Gallery will be rubbing shoulders with many UAE spaces such as Dubai’s The Third Line, Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde and Abu Dhabi’s very own Salwa Zeidan, which is situated at The Collection, St Regis, just a stone’s throw away from the art fair’s home on Saadiyat Island.
As in previous years, galleries will continue to exhibit under five distinct sections. The bulk will be in the modern and contemporary galleries section and there will also be a space for emerging artists, titled Signature, as well as a section specifically for design.
In the section called Bidaya – which puts the spotlight on one emerging gallery – is Taymour Grahne from New York. This blogger-turned-gallerist has spent much of his career seeking to change the under-representation of Middle Eastern art around the world. His stable of artists includes: the Moroccan-born Londoner Hassan Hajjaj, who uses photographic and pop art elements in his work; Tarek Al Ghoussein, who is based in Abu Dhabi and represented Kuwait at the Venice Biennale last year; and Mohammed Kazem, one of the UAE's premier Emirati artists.
The final section, called Beyond, is dedicated to large-scale installations, sculptures and site-specific commissions by selected artists.
For the first time, these larger pieces will be placed across various venues in Abu Dhabi in an attempt to actively engage audiences on a wider scale and increase the role that public art plays within society.
“In its sixth edition, Abu Dhabi Art has developed into an international art event, bringing the art world to Saadiyat Cultural District and to Abu Dhabi,” says Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA). “As the event grows annually, Abu Dhabi Art continues to cultivate a viable cultural ecosystem for the city and establish Abu Dhabi, along with the future museums of Saadiyat Cultural District, as a global cultural hub.”
Also in the line-up during the four-day event are talks, book launches, film screenings and a performing-arts platform. This platform will include Durub Al Tawaya, which was launched at the fair last year and focuses on live expressions of performing art that take place throughout a number of locations across the city – for instance, on a boat in the marina. It will continue this year with other innovative artistic installations.
With a special focus on design and on highlighting specific pieces of art in other sections of the fair, the programme has expanded, underlining the growing importance of the art fair and its impact on the national and regional art scene.
Importantly, for aficionados with an eye on the future development of Saadiyat Island, the much-anticipated exhibition of the preliminary Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection will also be unveiled.
Seeing through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection will showcase 18 artists whose works encompass a variety of media from the 1960s to the present. All explore the theme of light.
Seeing through Light: Selections from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Collection is curated by Susan Davidson, Senior Curator, Collections and Exhibitions, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, with Sasha Kalter-Wasserman, Assistant Curator, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and Maisa Al Qassimi, Programmes Manager, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority.
• Abu Dhabi Art runs from November 5-8 at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi
aseaman@thenational.ae
