Dubai is heating up this week and it’s not just the weather. Today is the official start of Dubai Art Week, running from March13-25. During this week several independent events will be hosted throughout the city that is rapidly becoming a creative hub in the region.
Monday evening will be particularly busy as the two main gallery centres, Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz and the Gate Village at DIFC, welcome art lovers to a smorgasbord of new exhibits. So, don a pair of your most fashionable and comfortable shoes and make sure to see our top picks below:
ALSERKAL AVENUE
Green Art Gallery
Kamrooz Aram Palimpsest: Unstable Paintings for Anxious Interiors
This will be Kamrooz Aram’s first solo show in Dubai. In this collection of paintings he starts off by painting a uniform grid of floral motifs drawn from Persian carpets. He then begins a process of breaking down and building up the paintings again. The result is a rather beautiful collision of non-Western historical art influences merged with Modernist Art. The work alludes to the shifting political and social landscape of our contemporary society.
Showcase Gallery
Elise Vazelakis The Gamcha Project
It is fitting that this exhibition takes place during the celebration of Art Week as it brings attention to the people who have literally built this city with their own hands – the hard working migrant labourers of Dubai. Over a period of eight months, Elise collected ‘gamchas’ the colourful head clothes worn by many labourers, as well as found objects from construction sites and photographs. They are all woven together to create these bold and striking ‘tapestries’.
GATE VILLAGE @ DIFC
The Empty Quarter
Bruno Barbey Morocco: A Scorching Beauty
Magnum photographer Bruno Barbey was born in Morocco in 1941 and has had a fascination with the country of his childhood ever since. He has photographed it over several decades and has managed to capture the vibrancy and complexity of both the landscape and its people. With rich earthy tones of ochre and yellow these images are filled with an incredible energy that transports the viewer straight into the landscape.
Art Sawa
Robert Hammond Happy Lucky
Hammond’s work is about as contemporary as you can get – it speaks directly to the ever-evolving hi-tech world in which we live. His use of materials such as polished steel and glass, his hyper-vivid colours, patterns and the emoji-like cartoonish iconography appeals to our childish and tactile senses.
For more information, visit Art Nights @ Gate Village and Alserkal Avenue
Main image: Art Nights @ DIFC
