Sep 21 - Oct 20, 2011
Sep 22 - Oct 27, 2011
The Graduates, an exhibition of new works by recent graduates of the Fine Arts program at University of Sharjah. Curated by Isak Berbic (artist, cuartor & professor). This group shows features four artists, Sarah Abu Abdallah, Hala Ali, Sofia Byttebier and Nada Dada, who use painting, video and installation as their principle mediums in examining issues of contemporary society. The exhibition aims to premiere these four emerging artists and individuals with distinct voices to the art community at large.
Monitor (Issue 0) indicates a publication, while each artwork can be seen as a featured column; together it generates a manifestation that motivates a greater public awareness of the media-orientated society. Rami sees art as an original form of mass communication, an aspiration attained by his works. Through his own style of analysis, he generates and details viable questions created by his journeys. He shares such interpretations with the audience while encouraging their participation.
With his new body of work UBIK examines the recent socio-political tectonic shift in the MENA region. He explores the optimism of the new wave "social media 9-5 weekday anarchists" who seem to promote a sense of optimism that is both convenient and sceptical. UBIK references his views through a mash-up of pop-culture laced with his usual dose of dark humour. In his own words, "suddenly everyone's a political pundit in this new world diss-order! "
Bilal Aquil fuses the intricacies of Persian miniatures from the Shahnamah (“Book of Kings”) with Francisco Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’,‘The Second of May 1808’ and ‘The Third of May 1808’ paintings, so as to depict the battlefield between the East and the West.
Representing Traffic in their first international art fair outside of the Middle East, Dubai-based American artist James Clar presents experimental media artworks influenced by living in Dubai. His work explores nationalism, globalism, and popular culture in the age of mass information. Using a range of technologies and materials, he examines the limitations of various communication mediums, observing its effect on the individual and society. Focusing on the visual arts, his work often controls and manipulates light - the common intersection of all visual mediums.
> James Clar official website > ART FUTURES, ART HK 11
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Video Installations by Saudi Artist Based in Bahrain Grapple with Issues of Identity, Resistance and Mortality
In his first solo show at Traffic, artist Faisal Samra uses large-scale video installations as a dynamic means to explore the issues around resistance, identity, mortality and other states of the human condition. Through these works, Samra draws upon the mundane – bread in an oven, an empty bed, animal feet – to raise questions about the nature of hatred, survival and belief.
www.paradiserow.com
In his first solo show in Europe, Iranian artist Hesam Rahmanian presents a body of paintings that, in the main, respond with a mordant and mournful wit to the repression and violence inflicted by the current theocratic regime in Iran on the country and its people.
Since the beginning of the year, however, Rahmanian has broadened his scope to include the uprisings and revolutions that have sprung up throughout the Middle East, collectively described in the media as the 'Arab spring'.
Launched in 2009, the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP) has become the world’s leading art prize for Iranian artists. Iranian art continues to command the attention of institutions, art collectors and press worldwide. Last year’s winner, Mahmoud Bakhshi, was awarded a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, London, in September 2010 and his works have since been acquired by Tate Modern, London, as part of their permanent collection.
This year MOP CAP 2011 will exhibition the works of the shortlisted artists at Traffic, Dubai on Monday 14th March. The exhibition will be inaugurated by HE Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahayan at the private view at 6pm. The exhibition will remain open to the public until Saturday 19th March 2011.
Traffic participates in Art Dubai 2011, the leading contemporary art fair in the region, exhibiting 11 artists at its booth.
The love of art is the true impetus of collecting. It is not the monetary worth but the intrinsic value of art that speaks to the heart. When it comes to art for art’s sake, there are no rules. Be it a high calibre or an emerging artist, an original or an edition, acquired by a long-time or entry-level collector, if a work of art speaks to us on an emotional level, if it uplifts us, makes us think, feel or react, it has won us over.