Eid Al Fitr may be a relatively quiet moment on the local arts scene, but it also marks the last few days of several exhibitions in the UAE, as galleries and institutions prepare to launch a new slate of shows.
From a sculptures examining how we internalise the ugliness of the world, to works by francophone women artists living in the UAE, here are three exhibitions to see this weekend.
Lumieres de Femmes at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi
Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi is hosting an exhibition in honour of International Women’s Rights Day. Titled Lumieres de Femmes, it has been organised in collaboration with AD'Art Collective, a francophone community of artists in Abu Dhabi, as well as The Feminin Pluriel Collective, a global network for women across professional and artistic sectors. The exhibition is supported by arts patrons Fairouz and Jean-Paul Villain.
Lumieres de Femmes features works by 23 French and francophone women artists living in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It brings together paintings, photographs, illustrations and ceramics.
Participants include French artists Karine Roche, a painter known for vibrant landscapes that blend urban and natural elements, and Benedicte Gimonnet, who takes a minimal approach to exploring the interactions of colour and light, as well as Emirati artist Khulood Al Jabri, who embeds cultural motifs in her dynamic and textured canvases.
Monday to Thursday, 8am-4pm; Friday, 8am-4pm; until March 29; Atrium of SUAD Campus, Abu Dhabi
Vestiges at Ayyam Gallery
Athar Jaber's first solo exhibition in Dubai presents a series of sculptures produced as far back as 2014, but which he believes embody his artistic intentions.
The works, which feature contorted and disfigured human bodies, aim to explore how we internalise the ugliness of the world today.
“People are sometimes disturbed or shocked by my work,” the Iraqi-Dutch sculptor told The National. “But then, look at what we have been fed through the media. Seeing what we've seen, I can't make beautiful things that just embellish and adorn.”
“It speaks more to a state of being,” he added. “An interior one of anxiety, of uncertainty, of unclear identity. I won't speak for everyone, but I think many of us feel that, right?”
Monday to Friday, 10am-6pm; Saturday, noon-6pm; until April 1; Ayyam Gallery, Dubai
Of Dust and Woven Air: Seher Shah at Green Art Gallery
In Of Dust and Woven Air, Karachi-born artist Seher Shah uses drawing, printmaking and poetry to explore the concepts of absence and memory.
The exhibition draws inspiration from The Dacca Gauzes by Indian-American poet Agha Shahid Ali, which conjured up Shah's memories of her maternal family and their experiences in various cities. The poem spurred what the exhibition describes as “emotional cartography” that draws a line between the seaports of Chittagong, Chennai and Kochi, as well as Karachi and the Arabian Sea.
Through her works, Shah “reveals a quiet poetry of loss and erasure, tracing what lingers long after it has disappeared”, the exhibition description states.
Monday to Saturday, 11am-7pm; until April 5; Green Art Gallery, Dubai