Featuring 21 artists and collectives from the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain,and Saudi Arabia, Between the Tides: A Gulf Quinquennial focuses on practices that are directly or tangentially based in the Gulf. Rather than a comprehensive survey, this NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery exhibition reflects on significant moments within the field of visual production from the last five years. On view through April 20, this first iteration of the quinquennial encompasses visual arts, architecture, and design, featuring painting, video, installation, photography, and sculpture. Co-curated by Maya Allison and Duygu Demir, the show evolved out of dialogues with artists and curators from across the region, in particular with four who became curatorial interlocutors: Abdullah Al Mutairi, Aseel AlYaqoub, Ali Ismail Karimi, and Ayman Zedani.
The title is a nod to an understanding of time as cyclical and to the regional foregrounding of lunar rhythms. The ebb and flow of tidal movements also evokes a relocation of matter that can be revelatory or concealing. Be it physical or symbolic, and whether things are sequestered from view or laid bare, intertidal zones are vibrant, vulnerable, and resilient, like the thinking and making behind the featured projects. While the practices included reflect a diverse array of interests and methodologies, they allow points of convergence to emerge, such as urban transformation, ecological change, negotiations of heritage, tracing of identities and communities, spatial politics, and questions of representation.
Featured artists include Alia Ahmad, Afra Al Dhaheri, Sophia Al Maria, Shaima Al Tamimi, Noor Al-Fayez, Mohammad AlFaraj, Abdulrahim Alkendi, Mohamed Almubarak, Mariam M. Alnoaimi, Christopher Joshua Benton, Sarah Brahim, Vikram Divecha, Faissal El-Malak, Hazem Harb, Aziz Motawa, Mohammad Sharaf, Bu Yousuf, and Ayman Zedani, as well as collaborations by Civil Architecture (Hamed Bukhamseen and Ali Ismail Karimi); Asaiel Al Saeed, Aseel AlYaqoub, Saphiya Abu Al-Maati, and Yousef Awaad Hussein; and Camille Zakharia and Ali Ismail Karimi.
To learn more, visit nyuad-artgallery.org.
