Rana Begum’s striking exploration of light and colour to take over Concrete on its 5th anniversary at Alserkal Avenue in March 2023

Dappled Light will open to the public on 26 February, from 6-9pm, and will run until 22 March 2023

Celebrating five years of its multidisciplinary space Concrete, Alserkal Avenue is presenting a rare solo presentation of work by artist Rana Begum. This will be the artist’s largest solo exhibition in the region to date and will include works that have not been shown in the region before. Begum’s work will explore the interaction of light, colour and form in dialogue with OMA’s Concrete, responding to the building’s architectural conversation with light and form, captured in its minimalist lines.The exhibition is curated by Dr Cliff Lauson.

Concrete was launched in 2017 and is the first OMA-designed building in the UAE. Since its opening, the brutalist structure has hosted numerous group exhibitions showcasing a rich and diverse programme, in partnership with arts institutions, such as the Atassi Foundation, Samdani art Foundation, Victoria and Albert Museum London, and Hayward Gallery, among others. To celebrate five years of Concrete’s legacy in the arts, Alserkal Avenue has chosen to work with Rana Begum, who is known for using industrial materials, repeating geometric patterns and colours that interact with the surrounding architecture. The artist has a long-standing relationship with the region, being represented by Dubai-based gallery The Third Line and having completed a commission for a show at Concrete in November 2019.

The unmissable works on display will include No. 1228 Mesh (2023) a large-scale suspended mesh ‘cloud’, and No. 1079 Painting Large (MG) (2021), an epic ten-meter wide colour-field canvas. Several wall-based works use different materials and forms to reveal the interplay of light and space, while others, including No. 1227 Net (2023) and No. 1229 Wall Drawing (2023), will be site-specific installations, responding to the architecture around them. Also included is No. 1080 Forest (MG) (2021), Begum’s first video installation, a time-lapse study of natural light as it falls through the forest canopy. No. 694 Hyetal (2016) is the artist’s only work to combine artificial illumination and movement in a dynamic interplay will be featured, after having been recently included in Uncombed, Unforseen, Unconstrained, an exhibition presented alongside last year’s Venice Biennale. The exhibition will also feature spectacular outdoor commission in the yard, the latest iteration of the artist’s sculptural compositions comprised of colourful tessellated mesh panels.

Speaking on the exhibition’s iteration in Concrete, Begum said: “This show means a lot to me, bringing together the varying strands of my work in a narrative that continues to inform and push my practice. In each touring location, Dappled Light has transformed to create a new experience, a new narrative. I am so excited to bring it to Concrete and see how it responds to the vast architecture. The geometric brutalism reflects my exploration into urban form while providing a stark backdrop to the more nebulous surfaces of colour and soft, dappled light.”

Drawing inspiration from the urban landscape, the precision of geometry, and traditional Islamic art and architecture, Begum’s work is grounded in light as a catalytic element that produces an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.

Vilma Jurkute, executive director of Alserkal Initiatives, said: “Bringing Dappled Light to Concrete, the very first artist solo exhibition in the space, solidifies our commitment to artistic production with artists connected to our region. We could not imagine for a better way to mark five years of OMA’s Concrete than bringing Rana Begum’s works to inhabit and respond to the space.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of talks and tours that will take place over the course of Alserkal Art Week and the duration of the exhibition. This year’s Alserkal Art Week will feature a comprehensive programme of thought-provoking exhibitions from Alserkal Avenue’s contemporary art galleries and curator-led tours as well as the much-loved regular fixtures of Majlis Talks. More details will follow in February as the programme is finalised.

Rana Begum: Dappled Light is organised and toured by the Mead Gallery, University of Warwick UK. The exhibition is generously supported by the Henry Moore Foundation.

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FURTHER ENQUIRIES

Neha Khandwani

neha@alserkal.online

Amjad Samer

ASaqer@golin-mena.com

Editor’s Notes

ABOUT RANA BEGUM

The work of London-based artist Rana Begum distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of minimalist abstraction, Begum blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture. Light is fundamental to her process. Begum’s works absorb and reflect varied densities of light to produce an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.

Born in Bangladesh in 1977, Rana Begum lives and works in London. In 1999, Begum graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design and, in 2002, gained an MFA in Painting from Slade School of Fine Art. Exhibitions include: Dappled Light, Mead Gallery & Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery (2022); Infinite Geometry, Wanas Konst (2021); Is This Tomorrow? Whitechapel Gallery (2019); Space, Light & Colour, Djanogly Gallery (2018); Solo show, TATE St Ives (2018); Actions, Kettle’s Yard (2018); and Women to Watch: Heavy Metal, NMWA Washington (2018).

ABOUT CLIFF LAUSON

Dr Cliff Lauson is Director of Exhibitions at Somerset House, London, overseeing the temporary exhibitions, commissions, and special projects of the cultural programme. He was formerly Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery, where he organised and commissioned numerous exhibitions and projects, including several relating to light, space, and perception. In 2018, Lauson also curated Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future presented at the Hayward Gallery and Concrete, Alserkal Avenue. He currently serves on the British Council Collection Acquisitions Advisory Committee and is a Trustee of Film and Video Umbrella.

ABOUT VILMA JURKUTE

Vilma Jurkute is the Executive Director of Alserkal Initiatives, overseeing Alserkal Avenue, Alserkal Arts Foundation, and Alserkal Advisory. Her professional and academic experience is centered on placemaking and the development of sustainable, community-centric creative economies with both global and regional impact.

Under Vilma’s leadership, Alserkal Initiatives has grown into a socially responsible and forward-thinking cultural enterprise. She oversees its three primary areas of activity: cultivating a creative economy in Dubai and building a collaborative network of civic-cultural institutions through its renowned cultural district, Alserkal Avenue; providing advisory services to public and private sector entities through Alserkal Advisory; and supporting public artist commissions, residencies, research grants, and educational programmes through its non-profit, Alserkal Arts Foundation.

ABOUT ALSERKAL AVENUE AND CONCRETE

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, homegrown 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.

Alserkal Avenue is home to Concrete, a multi-disciplinary exhibitions space conceptualised and programmed by Alserkal, as well as the artist residency programme of Alserkal’s non-profit, Alserkal Arts Foundation. Alserkal Avenue was established in 2008 by Alserkal Initiatives 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.