- 12 artists from Latin America will take up artists residencies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for between 4 and 8 weeks
- The invited artists will immerse themselves in the UAE’s cultural dialogue and produce new artworks for sale at Art Dubai 2019
FEBURARY 19, 2019 | DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Twelve artists represented by a selection of Latin America’s leading galleries have arrived in the UAE to take part in Art Dubai Residents, Art Dubai’s unique annual residency programme and gallery section. Coming from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Cuba and Colombia, the invited Residents artists will spend 4 to 8 weeks immersing themselves in the life and culture of the Emirates and the local art scene to create new artworks for sale at the fair which merge their distinct artistic practice with their surroundings.
“Something I was preoccupied with whilst planning the fair is the notion of ‘the perception of others’: the lens through which we view others, and indirectly ourselves. By taking these artists out of their usual environment and existing arts communities, challenging them to adapt and exchange in dialogue, we hope to see not just some exciting works but how their perception of others, and the UAE, shifts. For the smart collector, these artworks are very exciting pieces – completely new, shaped by and created in a new context.” said Art Dubai’s Artistic Director, Pablo del Val.
Art Dubai Residents 2019 is co-curated by São Paulo–based curator and artistic director of art space Pivô, Fernanda Brenner, who explained her vision: “The artists we’ve selected all work with different media and come from different backgrounds. Even though they share a continental territory, each country in Latin America is very different and full of complexities, so my intention is to deconstruct this idea of homogeneity and instead highlight the singularities”.
The artists will set up temporary studio space in the UAE: at Dubai Design District and Tashkeel in Dubai and Bait 15 and Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi. The residency programme acts as a starting point for introductions to and conversations with the local arts scene; promoting encounters and providing the artists with a comfortable working environment to allow for each artist to respond in their own way to the situation they find themselves in.
The programme’s co-curator Abu Dhabi-based Munira Al Sayegh believes the most important outcome of the project will be in the introduction of the Latin American artists into the fabric of the arts scene in the United Arab Emirates, “It is extremely important that the artists who are participating in this residency infiltrate further than just the surface of the United Arab Emirates. It is key for the artists to engage and exchange with local artists in order to further their understanding of the makeup of what the UAE really has to offer.”
Art Dubai Residents is supported by the Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy in the UAE: “The UAE’s culture and values set us apart. We’re delighted to support on Art Dubai Residents which align with our mandate to share them with the world,” said Minister of State, His Excellency Zaki Nuseeibeh.
Residents is accompanied by a range of public events and open studios, hosted by the residency spaces, giving the public an opportunity to interact with the artists and follow the production of their works up until their presentation at Art Dubai 2019. More details will be announced soon.
MEET THIS YEAR’S RESIDENT ARTISTS:
Based at Dubai Design District, Dubai
Nicanor Aráoz (represented by Barro, Buenos Aires)
Nicanor Aráoz (b.1981 Argentina) produces objects, installations, drawings and sculptures using as a reference images from comics, imagery from Internet and romantic mythologies taken from gothic art. In his practice, he attempts to push the boundaries of materials in search of intermediate emotional states.
Rodolpho Parigi (represented by CASA TRIÂNGULO, São Paulo)
Rodolpho Parigi’s (b. 1977, Brazil) drawings and paintings are somewhere between figurative and abstract. His vibrant compositions, defying any perspective, almost giving rise to vertigo and use a wide spectrum of visual references such as the history of art, design, advertising, pop culture, botany, zoology and anatomy.
Luiz Roque (represented by Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo/ Brussels/ New York)
Attracted by the power of image and, in particular, by sensations that stem from the sense of vision, visual artist Luiz Roque’s (b. 1979, Brazil) work crosses different territories, such as the genre of science fiction, the legacy of Modernism and pop culture, in order to understand and propose ingenious and visually sensual narratives.
Based at Tashkeel, Dubai
Alexandre da Cunha (represented by Luisa Strina, São Paulo)
Grounded in a material aesthetic and ethic, Alexandre da Cunha (b. 1969, Brazil) makes sculpture and wall-mounted work using transformed everyday or found objects. Da Cunha describes his practice as ‘pointing’, not ‘making’: pointing at existing objects in our everyday surroundings, and highlighting or revealing new and unexpected facets or meanings within them. This approach has allowed him to unpick our preconceptions and instinctive responses to things and shift our perspective to new ways of seeing and understanding.
Laura Lima (represented by A Gentil Carioca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro)
Laura Lima’s (b. 1971, Brazil) works are experimental arrangements that explore the margins of our perception along the boundaries between reality, illusion, and fiction. Working across mediums, Laura Lima frequently subjects the body to surprising juxtapositions with objects and architectures. With each installation, Lima consistently reinvents the viewer’s encounter with her work, skillfully considering the nature of perception, social relationships, and human behavior, while creating profound and startling aesthetic experiences.
Luis Enrique López-Chávez (represented by Galeria Servando, Havana)
In his work, Luis Enrique López-Chávez has been conducting a research exercise on the development of the plastic form and on the frictions that such form generates by introducing itself as an affirmation in the logical space of the world. From this contact with the socio-historical context, with language or with art itself, he proposes an image contained between a conceptual methodology and an un- conscious pulse, between a philosophical proposition and a poetic image.
Based at Bait 15, Abu Dhabi
Luciana Lamothe (represented by Ruth Benzacar Galeria De Arte, Buenos Aires)
Luciana Lamothe (b.1975, Buenos Aires) works with sculpture, assemblage and installation to interrogate the dialectical relationship between construction and destruction, the social and the anti-social. The ambivalence of the materials she works with, in terms of strength and ductility, soft and hard, can be clearly perceived in her pieces.
Mazenett Quiroga (represented by Instituto de Visión, Bogota)
Mazenett Quiroga are interested in exploring the interrelationship between organisms and the misnamed “resources” of our environment. Their distribution and resignification through culture. They strive to blur the distinction between the concepts of nature and culture. The duo have developed a practice based on an oscillation between past and present, science and mythology, Amerindian cultures and western influence, finding interstices between these apparent polarities.
Based at Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi
Jerry B. Martin (represented by Revolver Galeria, Lima/ Buenos Aires)
For over two decades, Jerry B. Martin (b. 1976, Colombia) has been using a typewriter as the main tool for his practice: a private performance based on transcription as a means for cognition. By typing and over-typing sentences, paragraphs, texts and even complete books, the artist creates lights and shadows that end up translating information into an image on paper that establishes links between author, material, content, process and itself.
José Manuel Mesías (represented by Galeria Continua, San Gimignano/ Beijing/ Les Moulins/ Havana)
José Manuel Mesías (b.1990, Cuba) takes notable moments from history and re-contextualises them, combining them with contemporary moments and more intimate occurrences. Mesías aims to capture urban beauty and simultaneous deterioration in his works; he seeks to portray the same anxiety and marvel he experiences through his everyday life and that, he argues, the world provokes in equal amounts.
Flora Rebollo (represented by Galeria Pilar, São Paulo)
In her most recurring practice, Flora Rebollo‘s (b.1983, Brazil) creates dynamic large-scale colourful compositions which employs a number of graphic features and are intriguing by both their profuse use of electric and muddy colors and their elusive shapes that appear to rebuild themselves incessantly.
Verónica Vázquez (represented by Piero Atchugarry, Pueblo Garzón/ Miami)
Through a process of finding and collecting materials, Verónica Vázquez (b.1970, Uruguay) repurposes discarded objects to create visually striking sculptures and wall reliefs. Her work references both the history of Uruguayan Constructivism as well as the legacy of the Italian Arte Povera.
About Art Dubai
Art Dubai is a leading international art fair as well as the world’s leading platform for Contemporary and Modern art from the MENASA region.
Mirroring Dubai’s position as a centre of trade and junction between different cultures, Art Dubai further acts as a place of discovery for art from centres that are usually omitted from the Western mainstream dialogue on art; in geographical terms referring to a region, which has recently become known as the ‘Global South’.
Art Dubai promotes regional art and artists by featuring a unique mix of programming and commissioned works, often in partnership with other regional institutions. Redefining the role an art fair should play, Art Dubai cultivates an ecosystem for art, education and thought leadership beyond the commercial aspects of the fair. Two examples of this are the fair’s critically acclaimed Global Art Forum, the largest arts conference in the Middle East and Asia, and Campus Art Dubai a one-of-a-kind educational programme in the UAE.
The fair further acts as a grassroots-type institution for art and art production through initiatives such as Residents, a programme-cum-gallery section for international artists, who are invited to the UAE for a 4-8 week residency to immerse themselves in the local scene.
Acting as a digital extension of Art Dubai’s offering, Art Dubai Portraits is a commissioned film series profiling artists that are connected to the fair through its programming or participating galleries. This serves as a one-of-a-kind resource for curators and researchers working with art and artists from the region.
The fair is sponsored by Julius Baer and Piaget, with Madinat Jumeirah as the home of the event. The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is a strategic partner of Art Dubai and supports the fair’s year-round education programme. BMW is the exclusive car partner of Art Dubai.
About BAIT15
BAIT15 is an artist run studio and exhibition space based in the heart of a residential area in downtown Abu Dhabi. Founded by three Abu Dhabi-based artists: Afra Al Dhaheri, Hashel Al Lamki, and Maitha Abdulla. The space housing BAIT15 was originally a residential home that was slowly transformed into a multifunctional space to cater to the artist’s community needs, reconfiguring the initial function of a home to serve as a production space for its artists. Each of the founders have an individual studio space in the villa to house their daily practice, in addition to a small library collection, and a multifunctional open space that is used for exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, artist talks, as well as community social events.
BAIT15 is a self-funded non-profit space that was founded out of a mutual need for collective community and artist working spaces. BAIT15’s mission is to engage with artistic communities and develop intimate to wider conversations in an effort to create new dialogues within the UAE’s evolving art scene. BAIT15’s programming is driven by its artists’ day to day practice in the space, and a continuous networking with artists and art professionals within the UAE and internationally, which ultimately allow for a more diverse and critical discourse within BAIT15’s community members.
About Dubai Design District
Dubai Design District (d3), a member of TECOM Group, is a destination dedicated to design that reinforces Dubai’s new status as a UNESCO Creative City of Design. Established to provide a platform for the region’s growing number of designers, creative professionals and artists to unite, create and inspire, d3 has fast become a hub for inspiration and innovation. Located in the heart of Dubai, the thriving neighbourhood is home to emerging designers as well as international brands.
With over 450 creative partners, including architects, interior designers, photography studios, product and fashion designers, d3 also has more than 45 retail stores and eateries. The Design Quarter at d3 offers visitors the opportunity to discover a variety of design showrooms and art galleries, indulge in authentic dining experiences, and shop at homegrown lifestyle boutiques, fashion ateliers, and international design showrooms.
d3 is also a popular events space that attracts international artists and audiences to cultural exhibitions and gatherings such as Dubai Design Week, Fashion Forward and Sole DXB a regional lifestyle platform for footwear, fashion, culture, art and design. In addition, the destination regularly hosts a roster of industry talks, workshops and educational programming, accessible to people of all ages.
Now open to the d3 community and the district’s visitors, The Block at d3 is a space to escape, relax, unwind and get fit. The recreational facility features a skate park, a basketball and volleyball court, climbing walls, an urban beach, as well as outdoor seating and entertainment areas.
About Tashkeel
Established in Dubai in 2008 by Lateefa bint Maktoum, Tashkeel seeks to provide a nurturing environment for the growth of contemporary art and design practice rooted in the UAE. Through multi-disciplinary studios, work spaces and galleries located in both Nad Al Sheba and Al Fahidi, it enables creative practice, experimentation and dialogue among practitioners and the wider community. Operating on an open membership model, Tashkeel’s annual programme of training, residencies, workshops, talks, exhibitions, international collaborations and publications aims to further practitioner development, public engagement, lifelong learning and the creative and cultural industries.
Tashkeel’s range of initiatives include: Tanween, which takes a selected cohort of emerging UAE-based designers through a nine-month development programme to take a product inspired by the surroundings of the UAE from concept to completion; Critical Practice, which invites visual artists to embark on a one-year development programme of studio practice, mentorship and training that culminates in a major solo presentation; Make Works UAE, an online platform [visit make.works] connecting creatives and fabricators to enable designers and artists accurate and efficient access to the UAE manufacturing sector; Exhibitions & Workshops to challenge artistic practice, enable capacity building and grow audience for the arts in the UAE; and the heart of Tashkeel, its Membership, a community of creatives with access to facilities and studio spaces to refine their skills, undertake collaborations and pursue professional careers.
www.tashkeel.org | make.works
About Warehouse421
Warehouse421 is a hub for creativity and an active participant in Abu Dhabi’s creative ecosystem, and is dedicated to supporting learning, making, exhibition and commercial activity relevant to the local and regional creative industries. Since November 2015, Warehouse421 has hosted 20 exhibitions and showcased the work of more than 400 local and regional artists and designers, providing a place for creatives to formally and informally convene. Warehouse421 offers the public the opportunity to explore their creativity through interactive initiatives including talks, workshops, film screenings and performances. Located in the Mina Zayed of Abu Dhabi, Warehouse421 was converted from two former industrial warehouses and designed by the respected Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).