If you think April is a ‘laidback’ month after March, you are mistaken! Here is your events & exhibitions list to Mark Your Calendar for April featuring a nonstop busting in Ayyam Galleries from Dubai to Beirut crossing Jeddah of course! A tribure to late Iranian artist Farideh Lashai at Leila Heller and a spotlight on some of Kuwait’s young talents in art & fashion at Bayt Lothan.
Also don’t forget to scroll down and check ‘Still Running…’ in case you missed a show from March. Start marking…
The Third Line
Time of Transformation
What: The Third Line is pleased to present internationally acclaimed artist Youssef Nabil’s fourth solo show in Dubai, which premieres the New York based Egyptian artist’s latest body of work. Working with his characteristic technique of hand painted silver gelatin photographs, Nabil introduces us to three new series that reflect upon the clash of archetypes that define the state of his present day home country.
Perview: April 24 2013 from 7 – 9 PM
Duration: April 24 – June 12, 2013
Location: The Third Line, Dubai.
Sultan Gallery
Youssef Nabil Book Launch
What: Kuwait based Sultan Gallery hosts Youssef Nabil booksigning and launch of his latest book ‘Yousef Nabil’. Artist will be present to sign the books.
When: Sunday, April 29 2013 from 7 – 9 PM
Where: Sultan Gallery, Kuwait.
Aaran Gallery
Today I Saw the Sun.
What: For his second solo show Hadi Alijani draws inspiration from his detailed study of “Noskh e Behbahan”, a magnificent illustrated book which is now kept at Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.
The rich literature of Iran, our fine arts with its hundreds of years of history, as well as the ever present Iranian satire, are all instruments that Alijani uses in his path to uniqueness. The successful transfer of an older visual tradition in to bold canvases is indicative of the tactful intelligence of a young artist that does not blindly follow western artistic styles.
When: 26th April 2013
Location: Aaran Gallery, Tehran
Contemporary Art Platform
The Rebellious Attitude
What: Conteporary Art Platform – CAP hosts Saudi artist Faisal Samra talk ‘Rebellious Attitude’.
When: 30th of April 2013 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Where: CAP Exhibition Space, Kuwait. RSVP
Art on 56th
Nawar Haedar & Yamen Yousef
What: Art on 56th has the pleasure to invite you to the exhibition of Syrian artists Nawar Haedar & Yamen Yousef. In Yousef sculptures, they speak volumes while saying nothing at all. Some work give a sense of being suspended in mid-flight whereas others appear to be drawings or sketches that have come to life and taken three-dimensional forms.
While Haeder’s work ranges from ink on paper to acrylic on canvas. Additionally, it is unique in its spontaneity as expressed in the brush strokes, the naïve yet dark treatment of subjects, and the use of symbolic and non-human forms.
Perview: Tuesday April 23, 2013 starting 6 pm.
Duration: from April 23 to May 11, 2013.
Location: Art on 56th, Beirut.
Safar/Voyage
Contemporary Art by Middle East Artists in Vancouver
What: Safar/Voyage is the first major exhibition of contemporary art from these regions to be shown in Vancouver. It is constructed as a journey in the company of 16 artists, each of whom is neither fixed inside the territories of the Middle East nor permanently diasporic. These artists define themselves and the world according to their own creative representations, often informed by culturally specific conditions.
Curated by Dr. Fereshteh Daftari, former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. MOA Coordinating Curator Dr. Jill Baird, Curator, Education & Public Programs, the exhibition will be accompanied by a publication & feature a wide range of public programs including curator and artist talks, musical performances, as well as the Hassan and Nezhat Khosrowshahi Distinguished Lecture Series featuring talks by noted architects and scholars Nader Ardalan, Daniel Roehr, Hossein Amanat, and Abbas Amanat. The artists featured:
Adel Abidin
Tarek Al-Ghoussein
Nazgol Ansarinia
Kutlug Ataman
Ayman Baalbaki
Ali Banisadr
Taysir Batniji
Mona Hatoum
Susan Hefuna
Raafat Ishak
Y.Z. Kami
Farhad Moshiri
Youssef Nabil
Hamed Sahihi
Mitra Tabrizian
Parviz Tanavoli
Perview: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Duration: April 20, 2013 – September 15, 2013
Location: Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver. For more information click here.
Artheum
Beirut Bloom, Contemporary Art Fair
What: Artheum presents Edition One of Beirut Bloom, Contemporary Art Fair which is set to encourage the changes taking place in the city, spotlighting the effervescent art scene, as Beirut is gradually becoming an art hub, with more talents surfacing with the willingness to showcase their passion to arts. The fair aims to form a community of art enthusiasts and gallery owners that are focused on up-and-coming talents, eager to introduce new blood of artists bringing a wide range of techniques and a vibrant selection of new works.
Perview: Wednesday April 17th 2013 from 6h to 10h p.m.
Duration: April 18th – 27th from 4h to 9h p.m.
Location: ARTHEUM – Karantina, Beirut.
Faux Consultancy & Pretty Little Things
Fashion Has Landed
What: A two-day fashion event at Sadu House to introduce 8 up and coming regional designers (including a male clothing designer) represented by UAE-based Faux Consultancy. The first night, Wednesday the 17th, is a chance for everyone to meet some of the designers and get an impression of the brands. Second day, Thursday the 18th, it’s open from 3-10pm and will be a lot more calm for shopping. Event-goers will be able to shop Spring/Summer 13 and preview the designers’ Fall/Winter 13 collections.
Everyone is welcome to the event, even to the opening night. I wanted to make sure we welcome our regional guests – for a lot of them, it will be their first time! The brands represented by Faux Consultancy at this event:
Bleach
Dima Ayad
Endemage
Madiyah Al Sharqi
Maryam Omaira
Mochi
Naz Cannon
Reem Juan
Preview: Wednesday, 17 April from 7 – 10 PM
Duration: For two days, Wednesday April 17 & Thursday April 18
Location: Sadu House, Kuwait.
Follow up the event on Instagram: #FashionHasLanded
Contemporary Art Platform – CAP
Movie Screening
What: Contemporary Art Platform – CAP brings back Movie Screening with Modest Moussorgsky – Wassily Kandinsky an absolute unique documentary that details nearly every bar with an instruction as to what was to go on stage. This performance has been revived, thanks to an animated film devised by Mikhaïl Rudy, based on the stage directions and Kandisky’s preparative watercolors, which were conserved at the Pompidou Centre. The film was presented in concert for the first time at the Cité de la Musique, Paris, in 2010, accompanied by a live performance by Mikhaïl Rudy. it has since screened in many countries.
When: Wednesday, April 17 at 7 PM
Where: Contemporary Art Platform – CAP, Kuwait.
Artlab Gallery
Shadow of a Shadow
What: Artlab is proud to present a solo exhibition by Syrian artist Shadi Abosada ‘Shadow of a Shadow’ where the artist attempts to transfer the visual the relation between all objects, creatures with its shadow. It would be outlandish for it to move in one direction while its silhouette moves in another, one and the other are so related that they cannot subsist without attachment at their root.
Perview: April 16 at 6 PM
Duration: April 16 – May 11, 2013.
Location: Artlab, Beirut.
FA Gallery
Tahsin Al Zaidy
What: FA Gallery presents solo exhibition by Tahsin Al Zaidy.
Perview: April 20 at 7 PM
Duration: April 20 – May 4, 2013
Location: FA Gallery, Kuwait.
Albareh Art Gallery
Readings
What: Albareh Art Gallery will open an exhibition by renowned Lebanese painter Fatima El Hajj, The exhibition titled ” Readings ” pays homage to the “book” and the act of reading .
The book and the act of reading is what inspires Fatima’s painted meditations, through colorful interstices staged in the familiar textures of the gardens she has admired: Her family estate in Wardanieh, the beautiful garden of roses in Rmaileh and the paintings of the Impressionist masters. she receives inspiration from the illustrations of Yahya Ibn Mahmood al-Wasiti for a thirteenth-century collection of stories written by the poet Abu al-Qasim Muhammad bin Ali Al-Hariri.
Perview: April 9 2013
Duration: April 9 – 30, 2013
Location: Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain.
Gallery 6
Buzzing Bellows
What: Buzzing Bellows a solo exhibition by Pakistani artist Abid Hassan who deals with the under current whisperings, hounding bellows and outrageous happenings in the country. But all these have been done by Abid in his unique style that compositions remain aesthetically appealing, glistening, intense, energetic and lively, that touches viewers deep inside and creates an unexplained attachment.
Perview: Saturday 13 April 2013 – 5:00 pm
Duration: 13 April – 23 April
Location: Gallery 6, Islamabad.
127 Galerie
ONCE UPON A TIME in Morocco
What: ‘Once Upon A Time’ is solo exhibition by Iranian artist Afsoon featuring her latest works of ‘Fairy Tale Icons’ in 127 Galerie in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Perview: April 11th
Duration: April 11 – May 31, 2013.
Location: 127 Galerie, Marrakesh, Morocco.
Ayyam Gallery
Afterimage in Beirut
What: Ayyam Gallery Beirut is pleased to announce “Afterimage”, a solo exhibition by Lebanese artist Ginane Makki Bacho presenting highly personal series of paintings which Makki Bacho refers to as her ‘memoirs’. The body of works allow the viewer glimpses into artist’s history set against a wider narrative of the changing face of Lebanon; the viewer shares in her intimate memories, but also the pain of a country torn apart.
Opening Reception: Thursday, 11 April at 7pm
Duration: 11 April – 31 May 2013.
Location: Ayyam Gallery, Beirut.
Om Kalthoum at Jeddah
What: Following on from his previous series of work ‘Nostalgia’, shown at Ayyam Gallery DIFC, Dubai in 2011, for his exhibition at Ayyam Gallery Jeddah the artist revisits the subject of legendary Egyptian singer, Om Kalthoum. Arabi paints expressive portraits of her that both serve as a tribute to her talent and investigate the wider relationship between music and painting. Throughout his gestural work, he pays close attention to colour: bold strokes of vivid colour call to mind a conductor leading his orchestra through a powerful symphony, or a composer marking notes on a score.
Perview: Wednesday, 24 April at 7pm
Duration: 24 APRIL – 30 MAY 2013
Location: Ayyam Gallery, Jeddah, KSA.
‘Against the Wall II‘ at DIFC
What: A solo exhibition by Syrian artist Abdul Karim Majdal Al-Beik who uncovers hidden stories and histories amongst the graffiti, etchings, and marks that can be found on the walls of Damascus’s Old City, which he then sets down in expressive canvases. While in past works Majdal Al-Beik restricted his materials and used a stark palette of white black and grey, in his recent work he has employed a wider palette and layered a variety of symbols – small crosses, guns and knives – over stitched patchwork surfaces, in a physical response to the on-going turmoil afflicting Syria.
Perview: Monday, 29 April at 7pm
Duration: 29 APRIL – 27 JUNE
Location: Ayyam Gallery, DIFC, Dubai.
Leila Heller Gallery
In Memory of Farideh Lashai
What: Leila Heller Gallery and Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art (ETNFA) are pleased to present two posthumous New York exhibitions celebrating the life and career of internationally renowned, recently deceased, Iranian artist Farideh Lashai (1944 – 2013). There will be two views, one from April 3 – May 7 in (ETNFA) and the second is from April 4 – May 2 at Gallery Leila Heller.
Through her dynamic paintings and videos, Farideh Lashai, who began exhibiting her work internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions in 1968, created a compelling Iranian aesthetic in contemporary Middle Eastern art, inspiring artists at home and abroad. During her career, Lashai captivated viewers with her works, which seem to inhabit an ephemeral reality akin to the actual shifts of events through time and space.
Exhibitions Dates & Locations:
Thus in silence in dreams’ projections
Leila Heller Gallery, 568 West 25th Street
April 4 – May 2, 2013
It is it, and it is only now…
Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, 37 West 57th Street
April 3 – May 7, 2013
For more information visit: Leila Heller Gallery
Galerie Concha de Nazelle
Melanchony Baby
What: Solo exhibition of Syrian artist Rania Moudarres Silva titled ‘Melanchony Baby’ featuring new figurative artworks depicting an attempt of capturing the features of an absent face.
Perview: Tuesday, April 2 at 6 PM
Duration: April 2 – 20, 2013.
Location: Galerie Concha de Nazelle, Toulouse, France.
Bayt Lothan
KREATE
What: A group exhibition of young Kuwaiti artists at Kuwait’s cultural center Bayt Lothan, works varied between graffiti, illustration, painting, fine jewelry lifestyle fashion and more.
Perview: April 2 from 8 – 10 PM
Duration: April 2 – 4th, 2013.
Location: Bayt Lothan, Kuwait.
Still Running…
Solo show by Shadi Habib Allah at Green Art Gallery until 5 May.
‘Carnaval of Darwiches’ Raouf Refai at Sana Gallery until 28 Apr.
‘Moving Forward by the Day’ Khaled Hafez at Meem Gallery until 2 May.
‘The Wrong Woman’ Afshin Pirhashemi at Ayyam Gallery DIFC until 25 Apr.
‘I Do Not Feel Free’ Sadik Alfraji at Ayyam Gallery London until 27 Apr.
‘Popcorngraphic’ Shurooq Amin at Ayyam Gallery AlQouz until 14 Apr.
‘Tajreed’ Abstract Group Show at CAP until 27 May.
‘The Abstract Work of Madi’ at CAP Warehouse until 6 Apr.
‘Wicked’ Clemence van Lunen at Galerie Polaris until 6 Apr.
Al Mahha Art Magazine 