Art Week at Alserkal Avenue returned with an exciting line-up of exhibitions and programs, with the region’s leading contemporary art galleries presenting 23 new exhibitions, and 10 galleries participating in Art Dubai.

Under, a major commission and public intervention by Hale Tenger—her first in almost a decade—guest curated by Mari Spirito, opened in The Yard, alongside eight pop-up projects and three open studios, including Alserkal Residency. The series of artist and curator talks were held in the Majlis, The Yard, featuring speakers such as Hale Tenger, Stuart Comer (MoMA), Mari Spirito (Protocinema), Sabih Ahmed (ArtAsiaArchive),

Zak Ové, and Jean Boghossian, along with daily tours, and more.

Ayyam gallery

Unpredictable Horizons

19 MARCH - 10 MAY

The show highlights Jean Boghossian’s multimedia paintings from his Abstract Calligraphy series. In these works, Boghossian applies fire and smoke to his canvases, using a wide array of brushes and torches as his tools. This process, unique to the artist, leaves behind patterns of perforation or, as he describes it, “poetry and construction through deconstruction”. Boghossian applies these techniques to various mediums to deliver universal and harmonious work. The exhibition will also include one of Boghossian’s mixed media and burn polystyrene installations, as featured in the Armenian pavillion at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

Custot gallery Dubai

Art & Jewelry

19 MARCH – 2 JUNE

Art & Jewelry is the first artists’ jewellery exhibition in Dubai and in the region. The exhibition brings together over 80 pieces of jewellery and 20 works of art from artists such as Alexander Calder, Niki de Saint Phalle, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Pouran Jinchi, Anish Kapoor, Pablo Picasso, Marc Quinn, Pablo Reinoso, Sophia Vari, and Bernar Venet. The exhibition aims to create dialogue between the ‘miniature’ and the ‘monumental’ works of art of some of the most important figures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Academy by yadp not for profit initiative

Transformation, Translation and Representation

19 MARCH - 19 APRIL

In Transformation, Translation, and Representation— an approach to contextual adaptability presents work by Marina Tabassum. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture Cycle 2016 winner for the Bait Ur Rauf Mosque, will exhibit alongside X-Architects Dubai and Year 3 architecture students from the American University of Sharjah.

Satellite

Satellite invites artists both in Dubai, and passing through, to use the space as a kind of satellite studio and gallery while away from home, encouraging experimentation in a new environment and collaboration between artists.

FN Designs

18 MARCH - 26 APRIL

In his new collection, Rashid Al Mulla is inspired by Charles Darwin’s book The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Each painting dives into the different chapters of the book, illustrating diferent physical expressions. When asked about his inspiration, Al Mulla said: “I was inspired by the book and lived in its world for a moment. I wanted to recreate this world through the artistic style of lines and colours, and let the viewer live in it too, for a moment.”

GALLERY ISABELLE VAN DEN EYNDE

Inhabiting the Grid

19 MARCH -3 MAY

Rhythm and Trace is a solo exhibition by German-Iranian artist Haleh Redjaian. Her works on paper, textiles, and site-specific wall installations are grounded in geometry, but she uses its rules to reshape and retrace the apparent order of angles and lines. Her compositions subtly belie their own errors and form what she calls a ‘natural abstract language’.

LA Galerie nationale

Cultural Crossroads

19 MARCH -15 SEPTEMBER

Cultural Crossroads is Tahar Ben Jelloun’s first show in the Middle East, featuring works on canvas. Poet and novelist Ben Jelloun is famous for his novels The Sand Child and The Sacred Night, which was awarded the French Goncourt prize in 1987. His journey into visual self-expression started in 2010 by colouring a friend’s enlarged drawings. In 2013, he painted his first blank canvas and embraced painting like he embraced writing. Since then, he has exhibited in Rome, Turin, Palermo, Marrakech, Tangier and, in 2017, at the Arab World Institute in Paris.

Lawrie shabibi

19 MARCH -1 JUNE

Zak Ové’s first solo exhibition at Lawrie Shabibi and in the Middle East, titled Star Liner, is inspired by his documentation of, and anthropological interest in, diasporic and African history. Of particular interest is that which is explored through Trinidadian carnival— a mode of resistance and a way of memorialising lost African culture and mythology.

Showcase gallery

Chasing the Light

14 MARCH - 21 APRIL

Showcase Gallery and Mestaria present a new collection of work by Dubai-based artist Mike Arnold. Arnold returns to his architectural roots, selecting landmark buildings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and capturing their inner spirit with a focus only on reflective light. In this series of large-scale oil paintings, he has used the wet-on-wet, or all a prima technique, meaning that he is now sketching with his brush and embracing a more imperfect finish.

Brownbook

Al Falaj: Water Systems of Gulf’s Oases

19 MARCH - 10 MAY

“Al Falaj” is the Arabic term used to describe the water channels commonly found across the Arabian Peninsula, which once stretched across the UAE. A collaboration between Cultural Engineering and Case Design, the material exhibited is a result of ongoing research conducted across the Emirates. It is based on studies of the few authentic examples of falaj channels still in use and aims to explore how they could be adapted for use today, especially in the UAE’s rapidly globalizing cities.

Svenm

17 MARCH - 14 MAY

It’s beginning to look like a new way of life: virtual reality. Provoking a serious question about continuity in the arts, materiality, and cultural production, SVENM’s new sculpture show is all about form, gravity and spatial practice. The exhibition is in collaboration with Caoimhe Jane Reynolds (Royal Dublin Society Young Artist of the Year nominee).