February 2023 - magpie

Planning for peace at RAKFAF

22 February 2023

On the edge of the Al Jazeera Al Hamra festival village for the ongoing Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival is an installation of 36 carefully placed stones. Seen from above they form the shape of a stylised bird, the [ … more]

Talking art

21 February 2023

Alserkal’s Majlis Talks on 28 February represent a useful contribution to the UAE art scene. A key part of Alserkal Art Week, they’re informal, commendably short, and meaty; as such they should provide both stimulus and incentive – a taster [ … more]

All’s fair: Art Dubai is back

17 February 2023

Art Dubai’s organisers say the 2023 programme is the fair’s most extensive and ambitious to date, cementing its increasing significance in the international art market and in particular celebrating the March dates as “the meeting point for the Global South’s [ … more]

Living with aridity, and what we can learn from it

15 February 2023

The National Pavilion UAE has detailed its participation at the upcoming 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Curator Faysal Tabbarah has put together an exhibition with the title Aridly Abundant; it suggests that arid environments can be transformed into spaces of [ … more]

Alserkal Art Week kickstarts the Dubai art season

15 February 2023

Alserkal Art Week returns from 26 February to 5 March with what looks to us like its best programme yet as a taster for Art Dubai and the Sikka Festival. Most of the happenings are concentrated at the start of [ … more]

Playdates: second Dubai Public Art open call

13 February 2023

The second of the competitions in the Dubai Public Art initiative has been announced. It’s for a ‘Playscape’ – “a large-scale, interactive and playful public artwork” to be installed at the Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park next to the Jameel Arts [ … more]

Form, space and light: Concrete gets a birthday present

8 February 2023

Alserkal Avenue opened its multidisciplinary space Concrete back in 2017, a hyper-versatile brutalist box that was the first building OMA designed in the UAE. Since then it has hosted a rich and appropriately diverse portfolio of exhibitions and events. To [ … more]

From the UAE to the world: looking for new ways to include performance in art

3 February 2023

It’s good to see local arts centres collaborating on issues that might advance thinking and practice about the arts in the region. Three of them – Alserkal Arts Foundation from Dubai, 421 and NYUAD from Abu Dhabi – are responsible [ … more]

Sharjah Art Foundation’s 2022 Production Grant awards

1 February 2023

A total of $200,000 will be shared by ten 10 artists, duos and collectives who have been selected through an international open call for Sharjah Art Foundation’s 2022 Production Grant. The money will provide core funding and professional support for [ … more]

Sharjah Biennial’s 30-year anniversary

1 February 2023

Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present opens next week with what looks like one of its richest ever programmes – including more than 300 artworks by (at our count) 159 artists and collectives from around the world, plus [ … more]