November 2023 – magpie

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award 2023 winners

29 November 2023

The 2023 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award was presented at Abu Dhabi Art last week to the artists responsible for Shaheeq – an interesting installation made from rammed earth that one day will return to the earth. Produced annually since 2013 [… more]

Endless seas, melting mountains: Blane De St Croix in conversation

29 November 2023

The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery opened its new season last September with one of its most pertinent shows: Horizon by Blane De St Croix. He’s a sculptor who works on the relationship between people and landscape, and in particular [… more]

From Fine Art to RAK Art: Ras Al Khaimah Art Festival evolves

22 November 2023

The Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival always seemed a misnomer. Fine art as a concept surely promotes aesthetic and intellectual purposes over (say) practical utility and/or handcrafted quality. Fine art implies hushed exhibition rooms, single-minded artists often working in [… more]

Small world, big show

22 November 2023

All musical endeavours have a backstory, of course. But few have as interesting a context as Small Island Big Song. The easy part first: Small Island Big Song is a touring show (and associated albums and film) that gigs at [… more]

Taking a Rizq?

22 November 2023

It’s always a pleasure to report the arrival of a new gallery, particularly one that looks sufficiently well funded and well organised to suggest a professional and long-lived addition to the UAE’s art scene. This one – Rizq Art Initiative, [… more]

LitFest promises more

15 November 2023

The 16th edition of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature – which is now billing itself “the region’s largest celebration of stories and ideas”, presumably in a bid to escape the confines of the printed page – will be returning [… more]

Obaid Alsafi named winner of Ithra Art Prize

14 November 2023

The sixth edition of the Ithra Art Prize, the region’s most valuable competitive art award, has gone to the Saudi Artist Obaid Alsafi (right) for an installation that reflects on climate change and how to preserve natural diversity. The King [… more]

Art collecting for fun and profit: UBS and Art Basel have the figures

14 November 2023

The second annual Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting offers a slightly mixed picture of the art market in the first half of 2023 (good for collectors and dealers, less so for auctioneers and art fairs), but then [… more]

After rain: much promise for the 2nd Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale

8 November 2023

The second Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale next year (20 February to 24 May) looks like going a long way towards its progenitors’ ambitions to further establish Saudi Arabia as a significant destination for art. It will have 92 artists from [… more]

Lighting up Abu Dhabi

7 November 2023

From 15 November to 30 January 2024 Abu Dhabi is getting three dozen site-specific light sculptures and installations. Under the name Manar Abu Dhabi (‘manar’ being a lighthouse or a guiding light), this is one of the key programmes in [… more]