Abu Dhabi Art extras: the artist commissions for 2023

Abu Dhabi Art has filled in the details for exhibitions and artist commissions around the 2023 fair, and — as one would expect – the results are a decent mix of the established and the new(ish).

The 2023 programme includes commissions for Almaha Jaralla, Samo Shalaby and Latifa Saeed in the Beyond Emerging Artists strand (the colon originally located after ‘Beyond’ seems to have been dropped as part of the branding, incidentally). The 2023 Gateway exhibition, entitled Maqam, is a show for Emirati artist Hashel Al Lamki. And works for sites across the emirate have been commissioned from Nujoom Al Ghanem and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim.

Since its inception in 2017, the Beyond Emerging Artists commissions have been among the most significant public contributions by Abu Dhabi Art. They provide three emerging UAE artists with a year-long programme of workshops and studio visits under the mentoring and the supervision of a guest curator, all leading toward the realisation of new projects to be launched with Abu Dhabi Art in November.

For 2023 the three artists are Almaha Jaralla, Samo Shalaby and Latifa Saeed. Their curator and mentor, art historian and publisher Morad Montazami, said that all three artists “have impressed me with their technical skills and interdisciplinary approach, but also their mindset and vision. Beyond their clear differences as artists, there are also shared concerns which connect them and bring them together. All three navigate an interesting path between private and public space, or the subjective and the collective.”

The annual Gateway exhibition, which highlights local and international artists through unique perspectives, is curated this year by Venetia Porter, Honorary Research Fellow at the British Museum and formerly the BM’s Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Art. She has chosen to present a survey show for Emirati painter and multi-disciplinary artist Hashel Al Lamki; its name, Maqam, comes from the residential neighbourhood of Al Ain where Al Lamki grew up; through past works and current creations, the exhibition offers a comprehensive understanding of Al Lamki’s artistic evolution.

Venetia Porter says she first saw Hashel Al Lamki’s work at the 2022 Lyon Biennale and was impressed by his large installation Rodinia. “When I was invited to curate the Gateway show at 2023 Abu Dhabi Art, I immediately thought of him. Spending time with Hashel, I have been struck by the complexity and range of the art he has been making this past decade and his ambitions for the future.

“This show will reflect that, while also highlighting the depth of his love for Al Ain where he grew up, and his fascination with the geology and history of the UAE.”

Launched in 2017, Artist Commissions in Cultural Sites sees established artists invited to create site-specific works across Abu Dhabi emirate. This year’s commissioned artists are the noted poet, artist, and multi-award-winning film director Nujoom Al Ghanem; and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, one of the pioneering Five who put the UAE on the conceptual art map in the 1980s (the others of course being Hassan and Hussain Sharif, Abdullah Al Saadi, and Mohammed Kazem) and celebrated in the UAE Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale.

Nujoom Al Ghanem and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim will be showing work in Al Jahili Fort and Al Ain Oasis.