Art Week at Alserkal Avenue

Gallery openings, pop-up projects and commissioned programme: 13 – 19 March 2016

Image Courtesy: Michelangelo Pistoletto. Two Less One Colored, 2015, mirror, gilded wood, 180 x 120 cm each. Courtesy: GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana. Photo by: Duccio Benvenuto

The 2016 Art Week, 14-19 March, will see a host of openings, commissions, projects and public programming take place at Alserkal Avenue. At the heart of the vibrant week, the galleries at Alserkal Avenue will present shows by Seher Shah, YZ Kami and Hassan Hajjaj and Stéphanie Saadé to name a few. The eagerly awaited openings of Custot Gallery, The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation and eL Seed Studio will bring further cultural dimensions to the Avenue, while Alserkal Avenue Programming will present commissions by Mary Ellen Carroll, Mohammed Kazem, Jessica Mein, Fari Bradley, Chris Weaver and Vikram Divecha alongside a selection of pop-up projects.

Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, Founder of Alserkal Avenue, comments, “Alserkal Avenue has evolved to become an important platform for genuine, grassroots cultural exchange not just for the Dubai arts community, but within the region at large. We want this cultural wealth to cement the importance of The Avenue as a home for visionaries and creative leaders, making it their window to the world, and, the world to Alserkal."

New spaces
The Jean-Paul Najar Foundation in partnership with Alserkal Avenue gathers over 600 pieces of European and American post-minimalist works from the 1960s
through the 1990s and will offer a full programme of exhibitions and public events. The inaugural exhibition, titled Jean-Paul Najar: Vision & Legacy, curated byJessamyn Fiore in a newly designed space by Mario Jossa of Marcel Breuer & Associates, 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, will present works from artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Peter Halley, Marc Quinn, Frank Stella and Fabienne Verdier. The selection will embody the two cornerstones of the gallery - contemporary fine art and large-scale sculpture.

Bringing a new dimension to the community, renowned calligraffiti artist, eL Seed establishes his studio in Alserkal Avenue, making it the first artist’s studio on the premises. eL Seed will use the multi-purpose space to work on new projects and showcase his art pieces. The studio will be open for visits upon request.

Alserkal Avenue Programming
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 view-points, highlight the incoherence of the neighbourhood, and challenge notions of permanence and place.

Collaborations and pop-up projects
Back by popular demand, RCA Secret Dubai - Dubai’s edition of the Royal College of Art’s anonymous art exhibition and sale – returns to Dubai this year. For the first time, in partnership with Art Dubai, the sale will take place across both key locations, Alserkal Avenue (14-19 March) and Art Dubai (17-10 March). The 2016 RCA Secret Dubai will feature 1,000 original post-card size artworks available for sale.
Previous contributors include: Zaha Hadid, Paul Smith, Christopher Bailey, eL Seed and more.

To register as a buyer please visit http://dubai.secret.rca.ac.uk.

The Avenue's central Yard spaces will be host to an eclectic range of pop-up presentations including the region’s first solo exhibition by Michelangelo Pistoletto presented by Leila Heller Gallery in cooperation with Galleria Continua at Alserkal Avenue’s project space, site-specific works by artist Zahra Al-Ghamdi and Issam Kourbaj, the Middle Eastern launch of Farhad Moshiri’s new monograph and Art Barter, a playful take on the art collecting process.

Vilma Jurkute, Director of Alserkal Avenue remarks, “Our 2016 Art Week line-up offers new and exciting concepts and celebrates the talent of the community. Together with our homegrown and international galleries a strong foundation for dialogue, collaboration and exchange is created.”

About Alserkal Avenue
Alserkal Avenue is a vibrant cultural district in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai, and is home to a community of over 70 contemporary art galleries, visual and performing arts organisations, designers, home-grown and entrepreneur-led businesses, and community spaces across 500,000 sqft and 90 warehouses. Alserkal Avenue provides an essential platform for the development of the creative industries in the United Arab Emirates. As one of the region’s foremost destinations for contemporary art, and home to Dubai’s risk-takers, makers and wide-ranging creative communities, Alserkal Avenue provides cultural experiences for local, regional and international audiences through its extensive year-round programming. Alserkal Avenue is home to Concrete, a multi-disciplinary exhibitions space conceptualised and programmed by Alserkal, as well as the artist residency program of Alserkal’s non-profit, Alserkal Arts Foundation. Alserkal Avenue was established in 2008 by Alserkal following the visionary thinking of its founder, Emirati businessman and cultural patron Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, who sought to cultivate a vibrant creative community and support cultural production in Dubai.