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| BEIRUT ART FAIR, in partnership with SGBL, is thrilled to announce the names of the ten artists selected by curator Rachel Dedman for REVEALING by SGBL 2019, following our open call, answered by over 400 artists. REVEALING by SGBL is a free platform for independent artists to present their works to collectors and make them benefit from the exposure afforded by the Fair. REVEALING by SGBL will showcase an outstanding group of emerging artists from all across the MENA region, including Lebanon, Algeria, Palestine, the UAE and Iran. Their work spans a variety of critical practices and media, including painting, photography, print, sculpture, video and textile, reflective of the MENA region’s socio-political circumstances. We extend our congratulations to Balsam Abo Zour, Yusef Audeh, Nadim Choufi, Hadi Fallahpisheh, Lynn Kodeih, Cristiana de Marchi, Hussein Nassereddine, Ieva Saudargaite Douaihi, Ghita Skali, Maya-Ines Touam. Rachel Dedman Curator of REVEALING by SGBL As curator of REVEALING by SGBL 2019, I have had the privilege of selecting an exceptional group of ten emerging artists. The platform has no unifying theme: artists were selected on the strength of their individual practices. However, each artist’s work reflects — and in many case addresses — the range of personal, political and socio-economic conditions in the MENA region today. In this sense, REVEALING by SGBL bears witness to some of the urgencies and issues governing society, and the interests shaping artistic practices. Hadi Fallahpisheh’s monumental, long-exposure photographs engage with the nature of contemporary news and its circulation, while making use of fundamental photographic techniques, and of the performance of the body in the darkroom. Ieva Saudargaite Douaihi’s work addresses age-old questions about photography’s relationship to its referent, using sculpture to make image and object meet tangibly. For Maya-Ines Touam, photography is a site to play with the construction of identities, where symbols of contemporary Algeria meet tropes of Western vanitas paintings. Ghita Skali’s video work explores tensions between nature and technology at the service of surveillance in Algeria, while Nadim Choufi examines how sexuality and identity are mediated through technology, lingering at the intersection of the human and the digital. Notions of national identity are pursued through the tactile medium of embroidery by Cristiana de Marchi, while Yusef Audeh and Balsam Abo Zour use painting to interrogate the mundane and the dark, from stories of occupation to fairytales. Hussein Nassereddine’s graphic work explores the intimate histories of Arabic literature, while Lynn Kodeih considers the political potential latent in familiar landscapes. As a curator, I consider REVEALING by SGBL an opportunity to complement the work of the galleries present at BEIRUT ART FAIR, support emerging artists, and introduce the public to exceptional works they might not have encountered before. |