ART WEEKS:Alserkal Avenue-Dubai
Located on 8th Street in Al Quoz Industrial Area One, the Avenue is a Dubai arts district that currently houses 20 contemporary art galleries and creative spaces within a one block radius. Founded in 2007, Alserkal Avenue has successfully transformed itself into a must-see destination for art exhibition openings, young collectors’ auctions and community events and is seen as an important platform for discourse and cultural exchange.
By Dimitris Lempesis
The 2016 Alserkal Avenue Art Week in Dubai, sees a host of openings, commissions, projects and public programming take place at Alserkal Avenue. All the galleries at Alserkal Avenue inaugurate exhibitions on the first day of the Art Week, also this year the openings of Custot Gallery, The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation and eL Seed Studio bring further cultural dimensions to the Avenue. Leila Heller Gallery invited Galleria Continua to organize the first solo exhibition in the UAE by Michelangelo Pistoletto (14/3-25/4/16). This exhibition spans 50 years of practice and highlights his multi-dimensional perception and rich relationship with the medium. In Michelangelo’s Pistoletto practice, mirrors constitute an image of the world, and of cosmic space. The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation has opened a private museum on Alserkal, its Collection hosts 600 works of European and American Post-Minimalist artists from the ‘60s through the ‘90s. The inaugural exhibition, titled “Jean-Paul Najar: Vision & Legacy”, reflects on Najar’s immense care and understanding of artists. The show presents masterpieces from the last half Century, as well as letters and ephemera from several artists throughout the decades. Custot Gallery’s opening show, “The Word Meets Here”, presents works from artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Peter Halley, Marc Quinn, Frank Stella and Fabienne Verdier. The selection embodies the two cornerstones of the gallery, Contemporary Art and large-scale sculpture. Alserkal Avenue Programming is dedicated to incubating innovative ideas and creative projects that increase understanding and appreciation of communities and histories within the region. This year’s commissioned artists have been invited to examine the built environment of the Avenue, break down barriers and borders, reveal hidden spaces and viewpoints, highlight the incoherence of the neighbourhood, and challenge notions of permanence and place. Art Barter not only makes artworks more accessible, it also questions the notion of the “art market” as bids are based purely on the works’ aesthetic value. Previous Art Barters that have changed hands in the past: a Tracey Emin work for 30 hours of French tutoring or a Jason Dodge work for a week in a Scottish castle. Participating artists include: Athier, Sara Naim, Vikram Divecha, UBIK, Layan Attari, Lantian Xie, Sarah Al Haddad, Zeinab Al Hashemi, Rami Farook and 10 international artists. RCA Secret Dubai is the Royal College of Art’s anonymous art exhibition and sale returns to Dubai this year, the sale will take place across both key locations, of Alserkal Avenue and Art Dubai The 2016 RCA Secret Dubai feature 1,000 original post-card size artworks. Previous contributors include: Zaha Hadid, Paul Smith, Christopher Bailey, eL Seed and more.
Info: Alserkal Avenue Art Week, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, Duration: 14-19/3/16, Hours: 14/3 10:00-21:00, 15-19/3 10:00-19:00, http://alserkalavenue.ae
