Lawrie Shabibi News
From the July/August Newsletter
Current Exhibition until 18 July 2012
TEXT ME looks at the unusual variety of ways that the current generation of contemporary artists from the Middle East, Iran and South Asia are incorporating text into their practice, breaking from the clichés concerning text based work in the broader region. Some artists give cryptic or absurdist messages, while others produce works that on the surface appear calligraphic, but in fact break the conventions of calligraphic painting, question the viewer’s expectations and even prompt questions about the place of such work in the market.
Alserkal Avenue Season Opening
The Alserkal Avenue Season opens on 10th September with a variety of shows and events taking place in the in the warehouse district. We will be presnting Placebo – a group show of new works by our gallery artists including Driss Ouadahi, Shahpour Pouyan, Marwan Sahmarani and Sama Alshaibi.
Stop, Play, Pause, Rewind – emerging art from Pakistan
On 24 September we present a group exhibition of young emerging artists from Pakistan. Stop, Play, Pause, Rewind is curated by Nafis Rizvi and will feature works by Abdulla M I Syed, Adeel uz Zafar, Ahsan Jamal, Irfan Hasan, Madiha Hyder, Mahreen Zuberi, Muhammad Ali (in collaboration with Cyra Ali), Saba Khan, Salman Toor, Sara Khan and Seher Naveed.
Sama Alshaibi and Marwan Sahmarani at The Changing Room, London
The works of Sama Alshaibi and Marwan Sahmarani will both feature in The Changing Room – a group exhibition by Finding Projects curated by Aida Eltiorie which opens on 15 August in London. The exhibition formulates a compendium of histories addressed and documented by groundbreaking artists either living in the region or exiled from it. Other artists exhibiting include Adel Abidin, Steve Sabella, Larissa Sansour, Kader Attia and Hasan Hajaj. The Changing Room will be presented in three venues, The Underground Gallery, Davenports Magic Shop and The Hub Westminster.
Nadia Kaabi-Linke at the Liverpool Biennial
Nadia Kaabi-Linke has been commissioned to produce a new work for the Liverpool Biennial which takes place from 15 September to 25 November. Liverpool Biennial is the largest contemporary arts festival in the UK and commissions leading and emerging artists to make and present permanent and temporary public artworks as well as long-term community-based projects. This year’s Biennial explores the theme of hospitality in line with the theme of the London Olympics.
Nabil Nahas at Glasstress Beirut
Nabil Nahas will be one of the artists exhibiting at Glasstress Beirut curated by Adriano Berengo. Conceived to creatively explore glass as a new medium, the Venice-based glass exhibition makes its debut this summer in Beirut bringing together seemingly distant cultures. The exhibition runs from 17 July to 21 July at the Beirut Exhibition Centre, Solidere.
Yasam Sasmazer at Künstlerhaus Marktoberdorf
Yasam Sasmazer will be presenting her new body of works in a solo exhibition entitled “Doppelgänger” at the Künstlerhaus Marktoberdorf from 6 July until 23 September. In this new body of work Sasmazer uses mirrors as symbols of our inner reflections and the dark side of our being that we choose not to see or explore.